American Apparel? News-Jacking? I Thought it was more like Opportunistic Marketing Tactics, or, Maybe, Another Example of when Companies put Sales Before People, Stuff like that
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| Surprise! American Apparel in the news for inappropriate marketing. Photo taken from Business Insider.com |
For Better or Worse...
SO, as more
and more information is revealed about Hurricane Sandy, I happened to stumble
across a particularly incredible tidbit of information. To be honest, I tried to stay out of it. It’s
not to say that I am not concerned for friends and acquaintances who live in
the areas affected, but I understand how news media is very much a business,
and a great deal of misinformation is gathered in spread in the midst of trying
to get the most pressing, up-to-date information before competitors. However, I am shocked, and at the same
time, hardly surprised to see American Apparel, a brand known for their sexist,
perverted, opportunistic advertising and marketing tactics involved in a
scandal surrounding Hurricane Sandy. Really?
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| Screen Shots taken from Jezebel |
Apparently the
company blasted email ads encouraging bored customers to enjoy 20% off
for the next 36 hours. USA TODAY and Jezebel both covered a story about
reactions to the ad. Also apparently GAP tried to follow suit but someone in their
marketing department decided to rub two brain cells together and discover these
types of marketing tactics are opportunistic and basically, inappropriate. There is this fine line some companies decide
they want to tap dance on: “helping” victims with sales and giveaways, and
exploiting a popular disaster as an opportunity to advertise and gain revenue.
USA TODAY’s Marisol Bello
wrote an article about how people responded to Hurricane Sandy using social
media, claiming events such as these demonstrate the “down side” of these tools.
There is even new, cleaver terminology for
the phenomena - “news-jacking.” (Can I just say, that in my opinion these
little slang terms try to remove issues from their sources, something that
rhymes with Appitalizm, but I mean,
who am I?)
It [news-jacking] happened with Hurricane Sandy, too, when
American Apparel sent out an e-mail blast for a 20% off sale for people living
in the affected states, with a tagline that read, "In case you're bored
during the storm."
An immediate backlash followed on Twitter. "I don't care if
it's 'relevant,' social media 'newsjacking' is gross and opportunistic,"
wrote one poster. Another wrote, "American Apparel showing how not to do
it with a Hurricane Sandy sale."
"It's not a good idea to try to use
these tragic events to your advantage," Hubbard says.
I debated about writing this
blog entry at all, for a number of reasons. I didn’t loose power, I’m not going
to have to worry about transportation, property damage, or loosing pay because
I had to stay in due to a natural disaster. Further, I am not going to have to
worry about a loved one being injured or worse. Everyone I know of living in
the area, as far as I am aware, is safe and relatively ok. So really, I don’t
know if I can take ownership or if I even have the right to be annoyed. But
MOSTLY I wasn’t sure if it was better to ignore
American Apparel and Gap. If art school
has taught me anything, it is that when assholes want attention, the best thing
to do is keep you mouth shut and wait out the bullshit. So hopefully, none of you feel an itch to go
buy some spandex leotards because I decided to comment.
There are organizations that are
trying to gather support for those particularly hurt by damage.
Links to stories:
ABC News article about how to help and why it's needed:
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