French retailer Monoprix has recalled a smoothie range aimed at teenagers following criticism of its packaging by national police unions, according to local reports.
Bottles of the special edition smoothies, released by German brand True Fruits to mark the start of the new school year, contained obscene drawings, curse words, and sexual comments.
Also featured among the scribbles was the anti-police acronym “ACAB,” short for “all cops are bastards.”
The “ACAB” acronym originates in 1920s England, but it has become a slogan more recently used by those who oppose police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police officer Derek Chavin.
The inclusion of this slogan on the bottles drew the ire of France’s police unions, Le Parisien reported.
The nation’s largest police union, Alliance Police Nationale, condemned the “anti-cop hate” in a Twitter post. It described the slogan’s inclusion as the “perfect way to destroy police-population relations.”
Axel Ronde, the general secretary of the Police En Avant! union, tweeted: “How can you tolerate anti-police inscriptions on your product, @truefruits?”
On Tuesday, Monoprix reacted to the backlash by announcing that it had decided to remove the incriminating products from its shelves.
“Product packaging of the True Fruits brand bears intolerable inscriptions and does not conform to our values,” the tweet said. “We have immediately alerted the supplier and are withdrawing it from the affected stores.”
Monoprix and True Fruits did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
*story by Business Insider
