So American Apparel ran a competition for models (open to the public) for their XL sized clothing. The competition's name "The Next BIG Thing".
Apparently one woman, Nancy Upton, submitted a variety of images designed to get a viceral response and ended up getting the most votes.
Ameican Apparel disqualified Nancy in light of her submission pictures being inappropriate in relation to the spirit of the campaign / contest.
They then wrote her a letter (you can read it here) explaining that they did not appreciate her actions (and sent such letter to media outlets - I suppose in light of Nancy getting a lot of media attention for her entry).
Anyway, so AA's The Next Big Thing campaign blew up in their face and turned in to a little bit of a PR nightmare.
A couple of lessons that can be learned here:
1) If you are running online competitions, never ever let people simply upload submissions without them being approved by staff first. All you have to do is visit any YouTube video and look at the comments section to see what happens when there's no filter on user comments (every single YouTube video has at least one totally inappropriate comment in the comments section).
2) If you are going to comment to the media, then comment to the media. If you are going to correspond with an individual, then correspond with an individual. But don't write a letter to an individual and then send it out to the media like it's a news release or something.
Or if you are going to do this, then in the letter to the individual, state implicitly that you are sharing this letter with media outlets.
You just look shady when you're sharing content between multiple parties who don't know you are sharing said content.
3) If you are going to run any kind of competition or campaign related to an issue that is a sensitive topic for many people, then stay the hell away from 'puns'. Sure, some people will see your pun as clever and funny, but it's 100 per cent guaranteed that a lot of other people will see your puns as insulting and insensitive.
With this particular campaign I'm tempted to think that it must have been a bunch of young 20-somethings that came up with it.... "Oh i know, the women are BIG so let's call the competition the next BIG thing, we're so smart!'
To be honest, I think the word "thing' is worse, the double connotation there is more offensive than the word Big.
I mean, any other title - The Next Face of XL Fashion - would have framed the competition in a non-offensive way.
Anyway, I get what AA was trying to do (it could have been a really positive thing), unfortunately they made enough mistakes that the whole thing ended up a total mess.
I think Upton's attempt to mock the whole campaign with her submission was pretty lame as well, but Upton doesn't have to worry about her reputation, AA does.
Goes to show how easy it is for a campaign to blow up in your face if you make just a couple simple mistakes.
Apparently one woman, Nancy Upton, submitted a variety of images designed to get a viceral response and ended up getting the most votes.
Ameican Apparel disqualified Nancy in light of her submission pictures being inappropriate in relation to the spirit of the campaign / contest.
They then wrote her a letter (you can read it here) explaining that they did not appreciate her actions (and sent such letter to media outlets - I suppose in light of Nancy getting a lot of media attention for her entry).
Anyway, so AA's The Next Big Thing campaign blew up in their face and turned in to a little bit of a PR nightmare.
A couple of lessons that can be learned here:
1) If you are running online competitions, never ever let people simply upload submissions without them being approved by staff first. All you have to do is visit any YouTube video and look at the comments section to see what happens when there's no filter on user comments (every single YouTube video has at least one totally inappropriate comment in the comments section).
2) If you are going to comment to the media, then comment to the media. If you are going to correspond with an individual, then correspond with an individual. But don't write a letter to an individual and then send it out to the media like it's a news release or something.
Or if you are going to do this, then in the letter to the individual, state implicitly that you are sharing this letter with media outlets.
You just look shady when you're sharing content between multiple parties who don't know you are sharing said content.
3) If you are going to run any kind of competition or campaign related to an issue that is a sensitive topic for many people, then stay the hell away from 'puns'. Sure, some people will see your pun as clever and funny, but it's 100 per cent guaranteed that a lot of other people will see your puns as insulting and insensitive.
With this particular campaign I'm tempted to think that it must have been a bunch of young 20-somethings that came up with it.... "Oh i know, the women are BIG so let's call the competition the next BIG thing, we're so smart!'
To be honest, I think the word "thing' is worse, the double connotation there is more offensive than the word Big.
I mean, any other title - The Next Face of XL Fashion - would have framed the competition in a non-offensive way.
Anyway, I get what AA was trying to do (it could have been a really positive thing), unfortunately they made enough mistakes that the whole thing ended up a total mess.
I think Upton's attempt to mock the whole campaign with her submission was pretty lame as well, but Upton doesn't have to worry about her reputation, AA does.
Goes to show how easy it is for a campaign to blow up in your face if you make just a couple simple mistakes.
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