This morning, people from Abercrombie & Fitch made it known that they do not appreciate The Situation and the rest of the Jersey Shore cast wearing their clothes on television. A&F hates it SO much, in fact, that they’re willing to PAY the cast members to wear other brands instead. A company spokesperson issued the following statement:
“We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans. We have also extended this offer [being the one that says they’d financially compensate them to wear GAP, or American Eagle, or whatever other alternative] to other members of the cast, and are urgently waiting a response.”
Let’s pretend we all know what the “aspirational nature” of the A&F brand is. Let’s pretend we do, because that’s not the issue here. (If you like, we can meet back in this very post in exactly one week and discuss it further.) The issue at hand happens to be a really fabulous one, and it’s that Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t appreciate the fact that The Situation has assigned a negative identity to their brand because when he brings girls home, he: makes them put on A&F clothes before he has sex with them, then tells them where the phone is so they can call themselves a cab, and then makes a grilled cheese sandwich for himself instead of walking the girls outside. The Situation has, essentially and very quickly, put the company in a bad spot. And in this day and age, branding is a very sacred part of a business, and more and more companies around the world have become hyper-vigilant of instances where people’s behavior can impact (or create a problem for) their revenue. A&F is probably irritated that The Situation also does things like wear their clothes while he’s telling Ronnie that he slept with Snooki in California while she was in a relationship with another guy. And quite honestly, I can see why A&F is taking the offensive on this one. And even more quite honestly, since they’re offering to shell out cash to the group in order to encourage them to wear different threads, I can see the cast agreeing to oblige their request.
