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French Connection United Kingdom raised
controversy in September, 2003 with new FCUK Him
and FCUK Her print ads. They pulled the campaign in
October and changed labels to spell out the
licensed brand name instead of FCUK 
conceding that its risqué selling shtick did
not sit well - but only after Federated Department
Stores pulled the fragrance and apparel branded
with FCUK and magazines stopped running ads for the
scents with the message in the ad above
- "Scent to bed." A revised campaign will
resume in the second quarter, says Zirh spokeswoman
Stacy Gubinski. "We will still market with fun and
irreverence. However, much of the controversial
nature of the campaign will be toned
down," she says. "The goal is to be able to
successfully market the brand while...making it
conceptually acceptable to retail partners and
their customers." The hope is that the scents will
be more acceptable to retailers and shoppers -
especially teens, who don't like to feel
manipulated. However, it seems that the corporation
is still manipulating the media. As of 12/803,
their web site is still promoting fcuk
fragrance with the "Scent to bed, fcuk for him,
fcuk for her" ad (See www.fcukfragrance.com/retail2002/flash.asp)
From the "conservative" haberdasher who promoted
"binge drinking" last summer, they've added Strip
Yahtzee, Dirty Scrabble and Naked Twister to their
holiday catalogue directed to the pre-teen and teen
market. Can you say "Abercrombie & Fitch".
That's right. And, to top that off, they have been
running a series of magazine ads directed to the
teen market featuring nude young men and women.
Menstuff joined the Dads & Daughter's
campaign with others to stop the sexualization of
young people in advertising. Well, something worked
because changes are being made.
Abercrombie & Fitch, which reported a
13% dip in November comparable store sales vs. last
year, has pulled the racy holiday edition of its
quarterly catalog, which featured naked models and
tips for oral sex.
Though Abercrombie says the catalogs were pulled
to free up display space for a new product, the
move also came after the organization of a boycott
of the 347-store chain by the National Coalition
for the Protection of Children & Families.
The boycott effort continues. "The bottom line is
that even if Abercrombie & Fitch is no
longer selling the quarterly in its stores, the
company continues to push the wrong messages on
teens," said coalition head Rick Schatz in a
statement.
Abercrombie has thrived on such controversy in
the past, but racy marketing is no longer driving
sales. The chain is in a nearly three-year drought
in positive same-store sales results.
"They need to examine the marketing
themes," says Dawn Stoner, specialty-retailing
analyst at Pacific Growth Equities, which
downgraded Abercrombie after the release of
November sales. "The poster of naked boys in the
store, the soft porn feel to the magazine, maybe
they have gone to the well too long. It's not new
anymore."
Abercrombie spokesman Hampton Carney says the
catalogs were slated to be in stores just six weeks
vs. the normal eight weeks. He says space needed
for a new fragrance, rather than consumer
complaints, necessitated the removal of the
catalogs.
"On thing has nothing to do with the other," he
says. "Every inch is valuable real estate for us,
especially at the holiday season."
"This customer group is full of very sharp young
people," says Ann Fishman, president of
Generational Targeted Marketing. "They know more
about marketing than Madison Avenue. What these two
companies have done is, in a heavy-handed way, try
to manipulate through the use of sex. Any kind of
advertising plan that goes over the line is spotted
and rejected in a minute."
Source: USA Today,
12/4/03, Theresa Howard
So, the Abercrombie spin seems to say "We like
how we promote to young people and we intend to
keep doing it just as soon as we get this new
fragrance off the ground." It remains
interesting that the marketing plan was so chaotic
that they didn't know they were going to introduce
a new fragrance for Christmas until after all of
that money was spent on producing the risqué
catalogue. Seems to us they're spiking the Holiday
Eggnog a little early this year. If you want a copy
of the catalogue, they probably have a lot of them
sitting around. Try to get one by
contacting their spokesman Hampton Carney.
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