On the website of the Canadian newspaper Stratford Gazette, the article by reporter Tori Sutton tells of how the Voodoo / The Ex knife set designed by Raffaele Iannello always arouses strong emotions among people. Most love him madly, while a minority is very upset at its sight.

Among them is Mrs. Brenda Schippiling, who after seeing it in the window of Bradshaws, one of the best shops in Stratford, has started a long battle to get it out of the market. But she found few people who thought like her. The Globe and Mail newspaper had even put it on the cover a few days earlier, increasing customer requests even more.

Jeremy Wreford, the shop owner, stated that, in offering this item for sale, it is certainly not his intention to condone violence or to make any members of the community uncomfortable. According to him the figure of the product is cartoonish, reminding him of a Keith Haring drawing or a figure on a men’s room door. He said it is non-representational and gender non-specific. In the context of society in general, and taking into consideration the images we see every day in movies, on prime time tv dramas, in video games, on the internet, and even the news, the item seems innocent by comparison.

A similar controversy had also taken place a few years earlier in the United Kingdom, where it had even arrived in parliament and the Advertising Standards Authority had to intervene to affirm that the product does not violate any law and it is not to be considered offensive nor promoter of violence.