IKEA Catalog Photoshop Controversy Spawns New Internet Photo Meme

IKEA received a lot of bad press around the world earlier this week after it came to light that the company had Photoshopped women out of its Saudia Arabian catalog. The company has since apologized, but the Internet isn’t planning to let the story die down without poking some fun at IKEA’s expense.

A new photo meme has been spawned in the wake of this controversy, called I(KEA) Got 99 Problems but a B**CH Aint One! (a reference to the chorus of Jay-Z’s song 99 Problems). It involves taking well-known photographs and replacing the women in them with IKEA products.

IKEA’s self-censorship is actually a step up tech-wise from what’s commonly done by Saudi authorities: using a black marker to cover up skin. Perhaps IKEA was trying to keep black markers from tarnishing the pristine — sometimes computer-generated — look of its product catalog, but the Internet won’t have any of that on its watch.

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