Racist T-shirt produced by Alpha Delta Pi sorority at Samford University. (Image via AL.com)

It’s hard to believe mistakes of this magnitude actually still happen. The Alpha Delta Pi sorority from Alabama’s Samford University missed a major detail in its spring formal T-shirts.

The shirts featured a vintage map of Alabama, but what everyone failed to see was the crude depiction of an African-American man eating a watermelon, according to AL.com.

Andrew Westmoreland, Samford University president, apologized for the error and said he was “repulsed by the image” in a letter to members of the university. The university issued an apology, but placed the blame on the sorority for going ahead with the design after the university had denied it. It’s like a real-life game of hot potato.

However, it seems the sorority isn’t all to blame. South by Sea, the apparel vendor that printed the T-shirts, said the error was their fault.

“We received notice from Samford University that this design was rejected in preproduction, and we incorrectly entered it in our system as an approval, a clerical error on our part,” a spokesperson for South by Sea said in a statement.

The sorority also released an apology statement and promised that it was “committed to ensuring this never happens again.”

The design was printed on 300 shirts, making this a very costly mistake. To avoid such mistakes, it’s important to work with branding professionals to catch these errors before they turn into huge problems for your business.

Product Showcase

With several instances of branded merchandise typos and errors, it’s important to always triple check your products. For your first promotional campaign, consider something with a smaller imprint space, like pens.

1) Classic Click Pen w/White Barrel

2) Bensen SM stylus Pen

3) Albany Gel Pen