Pedobear, the online meme meant to mock pedophiles, recently popped up in a Lakeland, Florida coupon book for a computer parts distribution company called CP Distributor. Unfortunately, CP also stands for "child pornography," and it appears some clueless coupon designer included the image not knowing the implications. To keep the misfortunes rolling, one of the principals of CP Distribution is a registered sex offender.
Having to explain Pedobear, a meme from the 4chan message board, to people unaware of it is perhaps one of the most awkward tasks, so we'll let URLesque do it for us:
Pedobear is a shorthand for saying, "You're being creepy about a kid." If anyone on 4chan posts a picture of a questionably young-looking girl in a sexy pose, someone will inevitably reply with a pic of Pedobear. Many times, Pedobear is added to a picture to point out real-world sexualization of presexual kids, but it's alternately shown as an acknowledgment of being inappropriately attracted to a child.In essence, the 45-year-old woman you see poring over a Justin Bieber magazine at the newsstand might need to be shown the Pedobear. Yes, it sounds kind of sick, but let's remember that Family Guy, a show on a leading television network, includes a pedophile character. These are the times we live in.
This admittedly risqué line of humor shouldn't be seen as condoning pedophilia.
However, pedophilic cartoons usually doesn't star in ads for computer companies.
Turns out, though, that Robert Dicks, who runs the company with his sister and brother-in-law, once spent seven years behind bars for sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12 (though he did no subsequent time under a bridge like Miami sex offenders).
The Smoking Gun spoke with the publisher of the coupon book:
In an interview this afternoon, Hughart, the coupon book's publisher, claimed that the ad was designed by a female employee in her mid-40s who found the "Pedobear" image online while searching for clip art to include in the CP Distributor coupon. Hughart, who would not identify the designer nor allow a reporter to speak with her, could not explain why the art department employee chose to include a bear, of all things, in a computer firm's advertisement. Nor could he provide insight as to why the designer chose to put the letters "CP" in a larger type size nestled next to "Pedobear."CP Distributor says it will continue to run ads in the book, but we think the company might want to consider a name change.
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