Sunday, July 6, 2008

Our Bad: Tom of Maine's IS Okay After All!

We here at I Smell Therefore I Am apologize for inadvertently contributing to what appears to have been a rather pernicious rumor about Tom's of Maine. We stand corrected. Like others, we were fooled. How ironic that in a story about thinking for oneself we were misled by erroneous information posing as do-good anti-hype. It goes to show how complicated the marketplace is, and how consistently one must struggle to think for oneself. Here at I Smell Therefore I Am, we attempt to report factually, but as our format is a blog, our posts are opinion driven, and sometimes we are wrong. While we appreciate people pointing our mistakes out to us, so that the correct information can be posted, we like to hope this will be done without malicious intent or in a mean-spirited way. We should also point out that we're not CNN. We're not reporting on hidden weapons facilities here. We're just expressing our love of perfume, which is sometimes, for us, hasty, messy, and emotional.

We would like to take this opportunity to point out that, because we recognize that ugly, untrue rumors are often started by anonymous people, in the future we will be more selective about publishing posts by those without profiles, unless you have something which isn't hateful to say, or we know you and understand that, as with your colleagues in the CIA, your identity must be protected at risk of death.

Apparently, the rumor that Tom's of Maine supports anti-abortion groups has circulated for some time. Finally, the company responded with a press release, which we include here in the spirit of abject contrition:

At Tom's of Maine we fell that abortion is a very private and individual decision. We have never and will never support operation rescue or any other anti-abortion organizations. Our co-founders Tom and Kate Chappell have never and will never support anti-abortion groups personally or through corporate efforts. In a related area, we do not use company funds to support political causes. To us, respecting employee and customer freedom and valuing the diverse opinions we hold is part of our strength.

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