CosmicCowboy
05-10-2006, 11:55 AM
May 9, 8:26 PM EDT
Cingular pulls ringtone deemed offensive
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Cingular Wireless LLC pulled a ringtone from its Web site Tuesday after learning that it carried a message the company called "blatantly offensive."
The cellular phone company became aware of the ringtone, which uses mixed English and Spanish and threatens deportation, after an inquiry from a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.
Editor Rachel Benavidez said Tuesday that she heard the ringtone over the weekend when a friend was surfing the Cingular site. The newspaper then played the ringtone for Cingular officials.
The newspaper reported in its online edition Tuesday that the ringtone started with a siren, followed by a male voice saying in a Southern drawl, "Calmate, calmate, this is la Migra," a slang term for the Border Patrol.
"Por favor, put the oranges down and step away from the cell phone. I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I'm deporting you back home-o," the voice continued. :lol
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness," Cingular spokesman Mark Siegel said after the newspaper played the $2.49 ringtone for him.
Hispanic activists called the product racist.
"It's horribly offensive and a disgusting thing," Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the newspaper.
Siegel said the company removed the ringtone, among thousands available for downloading from its Web site, Tuesday afternoon.
"Needless to say, we deeply regret and apologize for it ever being there in the first place. The ringtone is blatantly offensive," he said.
The ringtone became available between late February or early March and was downloaded eight times, Siegel. It was developed by Barrio Mobile, Siegel said. Barrio Mobile is a brand owned by Lagardere Active North American, the U.S. division of a French media company.
Cingular officials are reviewing the process used to screen ringtones, which are developed by several other companies, Siegel said.
"We are using this as an occasion to tighten our process even further so something like this doesn't happen again," he said.
Cingular pulls ringtone deemed offensive
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Cingular Wireless LLC pulled a ringtone from its Web site Tuesday after learning that it carried a message the company called "blatantly offensive."
The cellular phone company became aware of the ringtone, which uses mixed English and Spanish and threatens deportation, after an inquiry from a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.
Editor Rachel Benavidez said Tuesday that she heard the ringtone over the weekend when a friend was surfing the Cingular site. The newspaper then played the ringtone for Cingular officials.
The newspaper reported in its online edition Tuesday that the ringtone started with a siren, followed by a male voice saying in a Southern drawl, "Calmate, calmate, this is la Migra," a slang term for the Border Patrol.
"Por favor, put the oranges down and step away from the cell phone. I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I'm deporting you back home-o," the voice continued. :lol
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness," Cingular spokesman Mark Siegel said after the newspaper played the $2.49 ringtone for him.
Hispanic activists called the product racist.
"It's horribly offensive and a disgusting thing," Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the newspaper.
Siegel said the company removed the ringtone, among thousands available for downloading from its Web site, Tuesday afternoon.
"Needless to say, we deeply regret and apologize for it ever being there in the first place. The ringtone is blatantly offensive," he said.
The ringtone became available between late February or early March and was downloaded eight times, Siegel. It was developed by Barrio Mobile, Siegel said. Barrio Mobile is a brand owned by Lagardere Active North American, the U.S. division of a French media company.
Cingular officials are reviewing the process used to screen ringtones, which are developed by several other companies, Siegel said.
"We are using this as an occasion to tighten our process even further so something like this doesn't happen again," he said.