It reads in part:

“However, I fully accept that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people.

I must take responsibility for the circumstances in which I found myself and for allowing myself to be seen to be behaving in the worst possible light.

I only have myself to blame and I know that I must face up to my own failures and that I must work hard to gain peopleâ€s understanding and compassion. To start this process I am seeking help and all I can hope for in time is to address the personal failure which led to these circumstances and try and earn peopleâ€s forgiveness.

I have fought my entire life against prejudice, intolerance and discrimination, having been subjected to it myself. In all my work my inspiration has been to unite people of every race, creed, religion and sexuality by celebrating their cultural and ethnic diversity through fashion. That remains my guiding light.

Anti-semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence.”

via Fashionista

We promise, unless John Galliano personally invites us over for a drink, this is one of the last things we’ll mention about this story, but Vogue UK rounded up various quotes on Galliano and we happened upon this gem:

“I think Galliano needs to justify what he’s done,” Max Clifford, PR and damage-control expert, told WWD. “He needs two or three Jewish friends to come forward and tell the public that he is not remotely anti-Semitic in all the years they have known him. Or he has to say it was meant to be a funny rant, or that he was just trying to annoy to the people sitting next to him.”

What?!

As we predicted, a number of statements are so enamored with Galliano’s skill that they separate it from his social failings, but that particular piece of advice fails on so many levels that we can’t wonder how much Clifford was drinking before he offered it.

For starters, there are probably two things Galliano could offer to justify what appeared on that video: an evil twin or multiple personality disorder, with one personality being kind, genius fashion designer and the other being drunk Nazi admirer. Since we haven’t heard either of those tossed out as possibilities, there really isn’t any justifying the level of stupidity Galliano demonstrated.

Though he can say crazy things of his own, Karl Lagerfeld actually sums it up pretty well in his statement to WWD:

“I’m furious that it could happen. Because the question is no longer even whether he really said it. The image has gone around the world. It’s a horrible image for fashion, because they think that every designer and everything in fashion is like this. This is what makes me crazy in that story.

The thing is, we are a business world where, especially today, with the internet, one has to be more careful than ever, especially if you are a publicly known person. You cannot go in the street and be drunk – there are things you cannot do.”

This from the man who seems to confuse Facebook and the iPad.

Then we get to the other gems within this polished PR dropping: “he needs two or three Jewish friends.” Really? Galliano just needs a token Jew or two? Let’s find a black friend for David Duke to hang out with, that would totally change his image.

“Or he has to say it was meant to be a funny rant.” The only people who might find Galliano’s rant funny are other bigots, possibly bigots who encouraged him to play the role of a World War II era bigot. Unless the conversation immediately preceding that video rant is “okay John, just like we practiced, give us your best impression of a bigot!” it’s difficult to imagine anyone could find that video to be anything but sad on many, many levels.

“Or that he was just trying to annoy to the people sitting next to him.” Really? Really? Max, are you and Charlie Sheen on the same stuff? We hear he has a PR opening, so there might be an opportunity there, but back to this. You know what would be annoying? A designer telling someone she has an ugly bag and ugly eyebrows. We actually thought that was fairly funny, and it was probably annoying as well. Do you know what’s not annoying? Someone talking about loving Hitler and gassing people.

Annoying: “You have an ugly bag, ugly eyebrows, your shoes are cheap, your breath smells and you do look fat in that outfit.”

Bigoted: “I love Hitler. People like you would be gassed.”

See how that’s more hateful,  insulting and disgusting, than funny or annoying?

No? Well, take our word for it, there’s a difference. We haven’t been doing PR as long as you have, but allow us to take a stab in the dark here and revise your piece of advice.

Galliano should first of all acknowledge what he’s done. He should have two or three mental health or alcohol abuse professionals come forward and tell the public that they are helping him address his deep personal issues. Or, he has to say sincerely that there was no excuse or justification for the things that came out of his mouth, and the sheer level of stupidity that led him to drink to the point where he couldn’t conduct himself publicly in an acceptable way.

Fixed that for you.

Earlier today, Kenneth Cole tweeted that “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.” Complete with a link tracking that specific tweet. {Gawker}

Sigh.

As journalists are being beaten, the internet is shut off, demonstrators are being killed and bloodied, Egypt’s economy is being shot to hell, and governments around the world are nervously pondering what the uprising in Egypt means for international relations, here’s a tip: it’s probably not the right news event to try to build on.

We’re not sure if this is life imitating art, but we’re getting shades of 30 Rock here when Jack decides a pre-taped disaster benefit is a brilliant idea and it backfires tremendously. Maybe holidays just aren’t newsworthy enough anymore and this is the first event that seemed appropriate for the pre-written big news story tweet.

In a twist that tries to poke fun at the insensitivity of Kenneth Cole trying to poke fun at an event that’s not really funny or a good opportunity to make a sale, you can now follow @KennethColePR for more (fake) obtuse statements building on the meme.

If the bank in question is Citibank, you’d be wrong {TechCrunch}. Fabulis is described as a “social network that helps gay men connect with amazing experiences nearby and around the world.” The site is currently in beta, but the company does maintain a blog which mostly covers things like business cards, t-shirt and clothing giveaways with the company logo and general posts about building the site.

Somehow, three separate people at Citibank found the content inflammatory enough that they closed the fabulis bank account for the “objectionable content” that was “not in compliance with Citibankâ€s standard policies.” The business account was then flagged for termination. {GigaOm}

Let’s take a look at some of the wildly inflammatory content on the fabuls blog that could be considered objectionable: there’s the announcement of raising $625,000 from the Washington Post among others, then we have the iPhone giveaway,  and the posting about setting up a development center in India, a post from a Facebook fan, and more giveaways. Whew!

That will definitely offend people who find money, iPhones, tech development, Facebook and branded clothing objectionable!

While someone at Citibank has had the common sense to realize that this was an enormous mistake, it’s seriously troubling that not one, but three separate employees in the compliance department found those offensive giveaways so objectionable that they would actually try to have the account closed. Even more disturbing is that a company blog is now sufficient grounds for a bank to leave you in the lurch if they desire.

Goldberg and fabulis, got what appears to be a sincere apology stating that the Citibank rep places “great value” on fabulis’ business and “is committed to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.” Which may be true at a corporate level, but still doesn’t correct the fact that it took media attention, repeated phone calls and somewhat public embarrassment before three separate individuals were overridden on the decision to close a customer’s account for seemingly no reason other than targeting the gay community via the web.

While fabulis may or may not decide to remain with Citibank, hopefully this will be an experience that leads Citi to more transparency over what content is deemed objectionable, and what an appropriate response is.