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:
OH! Follow me on twitter @Jaime_glam
or on Bloglovin.com
or, by going to the upper right hand corner and clicking follow
OOOk. I'm glad you posted this. First, that first set of images of Steffi isn't even advertising the clothes. It's advertising /her/ as if she were a mail-order bride or something along those lines. But hey, what can you expect from 'murican Apparel? That ad highly disturbed me, and let me explain why. 1. I'm not against nudity, I think our bodies are beautiful mechanisms. However, I do not think it's right to exploit the body in the name of advertisement. This is belittling, because the ad is not artistic. It could, at best, be the cover of a Vampire Weekend album. 2. Even if this ad were seen in a creative light, it is not clear that any clothing item is being advertised. Steffi's butt is, but not the sweater. This is because the ad is set up to only show that portion of her body, four times. I don't need four images of the back side of a sweater to decide if I want it. Good job on being racy, and for giving me a reason to want to throw up in your store.
ReplyDeleteOn to the HurricaneSandy sale. Three letters: WTF. The first thing on my mind whenever I'm in the middle of a frankenstorm is to go shopping, because it's not like I may need that money later to replenish my food supply. No, American Apparel. Stop it. You want to redeem yourself? Donate to those in need. I mean, really, 20% off? Really? Stop it. You should have had a V8.
Nothing about American Apparel surprises me, considering it's founder is a known rapist, misogynist, and all around batshit crazy asshat.
ReplyDeleteCreating a sales blitz in the midst of a storm which has killed people and left millions without basic needs is not surprising in the long run - the age old business model in the United States is the same as any criminal in the process of committing a crime: means, motive, and opportunity. Gap and AA do it because they can.
Sigh. I don't what else to say about that, but it is truly disgusting.
You both just made this post 100% better. Just so you know.
ReplyDelete