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Abercrombie Makes Everybody Mad, Including Dogs

The response by the Abercrombie & Fitch PR department to the continued hue and cry about its controversial soft-porn Christmas magalog has hit a new low. First it was parents and the religious right. Now their PR department has even managed to offend animal lovers and dogs. My dog, Sam, for example, is furious.

An A&F insider told NY Daily News "Lowdown" writer that the magalog was killed not because of conservative protests but because it was no longer an effective marketing tool.

"Circulation for the Christmas issue was off more than 50% and it had just run out of steam," the source said. "What do you do when a dog becomes a cur? You put it to sleep?"

Dictionary.com definition of Cur:
1.A dog considered to be inferior or undesirable; a mongrel.
2. A base or cowardly person.

The PR department earlier refused comment to many news outlets and has continued to dig this bone deeper and deeper into a hole.

The company pulled the catalog after a storm of criticism including coverage on "60 Minutes" and "World News Tonight." Of course the fact that the stock took a divde might also be called a cur.

Categories: Worst Practices

BL Ochman | Dec 11 03 2:49

Comments

While A&F can definately benefit from more professional PR and customer relations, they have created a hot brand that even my 40 year-old women friends find very desirable. I think is is very possible that this is a gorilla-type marketing strategy pre-calculated to gain press by offending people who are not their target customers, possibly helping then break through the clutter reaching their target demos. I think it should be very interesting to see how their holiday sales go.

Posted by: Allen E. Barkus at December 14, 2003 3:14 PM

I think you give them more credit than they are due. If they did plan to impress their target market by offending others, it seems like they mucked it up.

Refusing to comment to major news organizations and not having credible comments about why the magalogs were withdrawn led to a drop in stock prices. And my bet is that it will be accompanied by a drop in sales.

Posted by: B.L. Ochman at December 14, 2003 7:57 PM

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Posted by: Soma at August 14, 2004 4:49 PM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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