Urban Outfitter's JFK Playboy merchandise slammed by Kennedy museum

Former president John F Kennedy Playboy style t-shirts deemed "offensive"

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MOLLY MULDOON,

IrishCentral Deputy Editor

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One of the t-shirts from a new line of JFK merchandise sold by retail giant Urban Outfitters

Photo by Urban Outfitters.com

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A new line of JFK merchandise sold by retail giant Urban Outfitters has been slammed by the  Massachusetts Kennedy foundation.

The global retailer is selling a t-shirt with a photoshopped image of the late President wearing a leather jacket and a gun holster, posing with topless playboy models on each arm.

Jessica Sylver, President and CEO of the JFK Hyannis Museum Foundation in Cape Cod described the item of clothing as shocking.

“It's disappointing that they would do something like this,” Sylver told IrishCentral.

“To take a president that was well received and much loved in the U.S. and other counties and put him beside two women like that, it’s not very respectful.”

“I think its offensive,” Sylver said, adding it is up to each individual to make up their own minds about the merchandise.

“If we don’t buy them they are not going sell them,” the Museum director told IrishCentral.

Another t-shirt in the line shows JFK with a bandage on his forehead, smoking a cigar.

Urban Outfitters could not be reached for comment.

The John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum welcomes over 50,000 visitors annually who are interested in the legacy of the 35th president of the United States, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

In December 2009 a photo was published by the celebrity gossip website, TMZ, which allegedly showed JFK relaxing on a yacht while two topless women frolicked in the water. It later emerged the photo dated back to a Playboy shoot from 1967. A Playboy spokeswoman at the time said the color version of the photo clearly showed the man in question was not JFK.

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