[Note: We received this email via our web site.  Columbia Sportswear should be applauded for taking this issue seriously and acting in a responsible way! - AUPHR]

Thank you and your readers for bringing this advertisement to our attention and for voicing your concerns to us via this site and numerous e-mails.

We investigated and determined that neither the original Hebrew text of the ad created by our independent Israeli distributor, nor the erroneous English translation supplied by the newspaper, was submitted to or approved by Columbia Sportswear as called for by our standard practices.

Columbia Sportswear and our Israeli distributor have agreed to immediately and permanently discontinue the ad, as well as to reinforce our standard pre-approval practices pertaining to all marketing materials in order to avoid such unfortunate errors in the future.
 
We take all customer feedback seriously and sincerely regret the offense inadvertently created by this ad.

Ron Parham
Sr. Director Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Columbia Sportswear Company

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