There is perhaps no other occasion that stirs up as much pop-culture controversy as Halloween. And one of this year's costume ideas has already done decent amount of harm.
Demands are already high for such costumes among online retailers. Costume site BrandsOnSale, for instance, is selling "Ebola Containment Suit Costume" for $79.99, which includes a white suit emblazoned with a face shield, breathing mask, safety goggles and blue latex gloves.
The retailer has raised eyebrows with the Halloween customers and its declaration of it being "literally" the "most viral costume of the year".
"You are sure to be prepared if any outbreak happens at your Halloween party," a part of the product description reads.
Being an 'Ebola zombie' or walking with hazmat suits and respirators, the idea to represent the virus during Halloween, is also going viral in the social media. But as much as people would desperately like to discover a unique costume for humour's sake, there are others who think the joke would be in poor taste.
"Normally, I think that irony and humour is funny, but this thing with the costumes, is it really that funny? I mean, Ebola's not even under control yet," Associated Press quoted Maria McKenna a physician's assistant in Philadelphia as saying. One of her own tribe, a Dallas nurse, was diagnosed with the virus in the United States after she had helped take care of a Liberian man who died with the disease last week.
While there will be a general consensus that wearing an 'Ebola costume' would definitely portray poor taste in humour, sellers still have the leftover yellow jumpsuits, rubber gloves and masks from the "Breaking Bad" craze last year. But those who followed that look are now "definitely asking for an Ebola-type costume", the news agency quoted one person who wore "Breaking Bad" look last year, as saying.
