ASDA has been forced to apologise after it advertised a fancy dress outfit featuring someone covered in blood and brandishing a machete as a “mental patient costume”.
The Halloween costume, designed to look like a blood-splattered straitjacket with ragged edges, was on sale for £20 through the supermarket’s clothing arm George. Sainsbury’s said it had rejected a chance to sell the item.
Many took to Twitter to express their disgust at the description including former footballer Stan Collymore, who has battled depression.
He tweeted: “Dear ASDA, nice stereotype of ‘Mental patients’. Something you’d expect from the £££. A f-ing joke.” He went on: “Do you actually realise how many people are hanging themselves because of being frightened of the stigma? Wording is CLEAR. MENTAL PATIENT.”
Asda apologised for the incident in a series of tweets. It said: “We’re deeply sorry one of our fancy dress costumes has upset people. This was an unacceptable error — the product was withdrawn immediately.
“We’d like to offer our sincere apologies for the offence it’s caused and will be making a sizeable donation to @MindCharity. We removed the product from our website this afternoon but unfortunately the page may remain visible for a few more hours.”
Former spin doctor Alistair Campbell, who has also suffered from depression, wrote: “Look what Asda’s selling ... what possesses these people?”
Katie Dalton of Welsh mental health charity Gofal tweeted: “Dear @asda, did you take 1 second to consider how it would affect the 1 in 4 people who experience mental health problems in any given year?”
Tesco has also apologised for selling a “Hannibal Lecter-style” costume referring to mental health issues.
The bright orange costume called “Psycho Ward” had the word “Committed” printed on the back. A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We’re really sorry for any offence this has caused and we are removing this product from sale.”
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