Fox Home Entertainment and PR firm Thinkjam have issued apologies for the timing of an ad campaign promoting the DVD release of the first season of Sleepy Hollow. The ads—which focused on the fun, silly, lighthearted side of people having their heads cut off—were unfortunately deployed on the same day that the militant group ISIS released a video of the murder by beheading of American journalist Steven J. Sotloff.
Making things even worse, Fox’s campaign dubbed Sept. 2 “National Beheading Day,” and featured cards showing members of the supernatural thriller’s cast making silly puns about having their heads chopped off. “We regret the unfortunate timing of our announcement and our deepest sympathies go out to the families of all involved,” said Fox, which didn’t go on to say exactly how long after a very public death by beheading might be appropriate for cards hashtagged #HeadlessDay and emblazoned with slogans like “With hair like this, I think I’d rather be headless…” Although, given that ISIS had previously released a video on August 17 showing the similar execution of journalist James Foley, the answer would seem to be “about two weeks.”