Okay, but who actually smiles for paparazzi? (Photo: Getty Images)

Goodwill does a lot of (good) things well, but it looks like celebrity-based humor isn’t one of them. To wit: TMZ recently got its hands on an internal newsletter from the Illinois division of the charitable organization, in which a photo of Kanye West was used to give managers a lesson on employee interaction. A row of unsmiling Kanye faces was posted below the query, “Do you have Resting Kanye Face?”, which is apparently the award-winning-platinum-selling-artist equivalent of Resting Bitch Face, which is itself the equivalent of a person’s face.


Courtesy of TMZ

The post illustrates how Kanye West’s moue remains in place regardless of what exciting/sad/scary things are going on at Goodwill, but his thousand-yard stare is apparently not the demeanor that a store manager should adopt. It seems Goodwill would like its employees in leadership positions to have a wide range of expressions, instead of a single, exasperated look in response to being constantly photographed. The newsletter also makes such helpful suggestions for improving one’s approachability as making “eye contact,” “smiling on occasion,” and just saying “fuck it” (our words, not theirs) and “approaching others.”




Setting aside for a moment how specious the logic is of using a photo of an ultra-famous person who would probably leave a lot of people starstruck in a lesson on approachability, Goodwill didn’t even bother to do an image search for “Sad Kanye,” which would have yielded multiple examples with which it could have supported its position. And now it’s too late, as TMZ reports that Goodwill has pulled the newsletter after receiving complaints, and has apologized for its questionable attempt at being “relatable.” The organization made the following statement:

“We’d like to apologize to Kanye West, his fans and the community for the use of his image to illustrate an internal training message. It was unacceptable and Goodwill takes full responsibility for this action and meant no disrespect to Kanye.”


[h/t Complex]