Push-up bras for kids plus “no comment” equals disaster for Abercrombie

Despite the old adage “no press is bad press,” this philosophy definitely didn’t apply to Abercrombie & Fitch after CNN ran a story March 26 about the controversy surrounding the retailer’s new line of wildly inappropriate “Ashley” push-up bikini tops for young girls. And based on A&F’s pitiable response (or lack thereof), this company is in serious need of some public relations guidance.

As to be expected, parents and other critics were outraged when the kiddy bust-enhancing bikinis were posted to the Abercrombie Kids website earlier in the week, according to CNN. So how did A&F’s react to the controversy? They simply changed the bikini’s online description from “push-up triangle” to “striped triangle” in addition to the big, fat “NO COMMENT” they gave CNN.

Is that really the best this national retailer could come up with? Most of us know the dangers of declining to comment to any media inquiry, especially during a crisis. According to PR professional and blogger Brad Domitrovich, ignoring the media in a crisis situation always makes things worse. “If we provided no comment, we would have lost our greatest opportunity to control the crisis,” Domitrovich said in his blog. This is a concept that A&F clearly does not seem to understand.

Regardless of the fact that this whole mess could have been avoided with some careful market research before the product’s release, the company could have reduced the negative impact of this story with a planned and thoughtful media response.

In their response, A&F should have:

1. Apologized. No matter who is to blame, a spokesperson should always at least say “we’re sorry this happened.”
2. Described the situation from their point of view.
3. Explained what is being done by the company to better the situation.
4. Taken responsibility for the situation.

See the full story at http://tiny.cc/me5ch.

Stacey Battenberg

University of Minnesota
Jour 3279
Blog Assignment