Dear Abecrombie & Fitch,
Well played. Your marketing department had to know that marketing a "push up" bikini to 8 year olds was guaranteed to garner attention, much of it negative. The resultant air time and media buzz must have been invaluable! I bet you can't even put a price tag on that. Of course, after a proper amount of "oh no they didn't!" rubbernecking on the part of the media and the public that heretofore didn't know or care about your 2011 summer line, you could graciously shake your heads in mock shame over our gutter minds, insist that you were misunderstood and that the suits were "lightly padded for modesty" and pretend it was all just a great big misunderstanding. Meanwhile, your "butt enhancing" pants for little girls remain on display. Just so we are clear here, despite the lightning-speed revamp there was no "misunderstanding" here. You're too smart for that. You've managed to turn a so-so brand that hails from a state known more for cows and an aging-rust-belt-infrastructure into a faux-English-boarding-school-meets-West-Coast-Cool trend, so we know you've got some mad public relations skilz.It's safe to say you know your way around some serious "spin."
They were clearly working overtime when they came up with this one. Calling the bikini a "padded push-up style" and marketing it in your "Kids" catalog was a stroke of GENIUS. You got the "cutting edge" publicity you crave because your brand is slipping into "tired" territory with your target teen and young-twenties demographic. Suddenly you are almost edgy again! How else could you possibly hope to get CNN and Fox News to tell us about your new products? Then, just as the furor dies down, you backpedal enough so that the middle aged moms buy the "oh it was all blown out of proportion" line and continue to slurp up this stuff for their tweens - because you can't possibly buy the same ugly a#$ striped bathing suit at Target for a fraction of the price right? Of course not. Not when we have A&F Kids selflessly making the world safe for flat-chested 8, 9, and 10 years olds. Which is to say, ALL OF THEM.
Well played, indeed. Now let's see who falls for it. Junior hooker, product lines, and sinker.
Well played, indeed. Now let's see who falls for it. Junior hooker, product lines, and sinker.
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8 comments:
Well done, dearie! Love the closing line...
Thank goodness my family was too poor to afford ANY brand names, much less stuff from trendy catalogs and the like. The only thing A&F is good for were the old Mad TV skits they did to spoof them. :)
I refuse to shop at that store! I can't see paying big money for a t-shirt with their logo on it to help them with their marketing! I don't and won't do it.
Have you even seen the padded bras they market at the regular stores for the teens? These young gals don't need to stuff their bras with socks anymore that's for sure!
Have a Great Day!
Angela
I hadn't heard about this because, well . . . because I essentially live in a bubble. But GAH! I've struggled with the Jr. prostitute girls' clothing issue for twelve years, now. They at least gave us the first few years free . . . but more and more I see even the BABY clothes squeeze into the category of skanky.
are you serious, thats how they marketed it?! WHAT idiot would do that? That's like "Hello bring your kids here, we've got pedophiles behind every dressing room mirror!"
*shudders* I bet A&F's legal department had a field day with that.
you preach it sister, i agree with you completely. anything they show on the news, including this, just puts it out there even more..if the media would stop, no one would ever KNOW which would be a good thing. i for one am horrified by the clothing and the lack of material in it that hangs in the children s and tweens racks. what are they thinking is my thought
I don't shop there.
very well said. Insiteful!! We dont support them and I have teenage girls who are the ones that feel so strongly about it :) xox LA
Hear, hear, hear you! The A&F at the West Hartford mall has a shirtless boy and a girl in a very mini dress thing at the gate of their nubile paradise. My daughter and I wonder if he'll ever make enough to afford a shirt. Gross.
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