It’s rare to see a good idea, failed parody, and knee-jerk reaction all collide in one horrible mess, but Sprint managed to pull that off this week.

The phone giant launched a series of ads attacking the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. They spoofed — very effectively — T-Mobile’s girl in pink campaign by dressing up a crusty, corpulent, cigar-chomping fat-cat in a similar outfit.

The message is simple: you can dress up this merger in a cute pink dress, but it’s still ugly. Smart idea — but as for parody, I’m not convinced that enough people recognize the T-Mobile spokesmodel to make it effective. Don’t overestimate the awareness of the general public. They don’t pay as much attention as you think.

But that’s not all, for this story has an insane twist that you won’t believe. Sprint yanked the ads — which were all over newspapers and the internet — because the transgender community found them offensive. Of particular concern was the tagline “It makes sense if you don’t think about it,” which some suggested constituted transphobia.

Behold the death of humor in America. You can’t even put a guy in a dress anymore.

creative, media