What’s gotten into retailers lately? H&M South Africa made headlines for an offensive tweet defending its all-white ads and now Bloomingdale’s is under fire for an ad in its holiday catalog that encourages viewers to spike their friends’ drinks. The ad, a promotion for Rebecca Minkoff, reads, “Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking.” Even more disturbing, it features a man staring intently at an unsuspecting woman seen laughing and looking in the other direction.
Date rape, which so often starts with a spiked drink, is no laughing matter. It’s certainly an indecent premise for a holiday marketing campaign. The timing of the ad couldn’t be worse given the drugging and rape accusations that continue to surface against Bill Cosby.
After the uproar, Bloomingdale’s apologized in a statement to Tech Insider: “In reflection of recent feedback, the copy we used in our recent catalog was inappropriate and in poor taste. Bloomingdale’s sincerely apologizes for this error in judgment.”
Normalizing rape culture to sell clothes is deplorable to say the least. We can’t fathom how this ad even made it past marketing execs but let’s hope it never happens again.
[via Tech Insider]
