This is exactly how you do
NOT write a rebuttal statement to false allegations claimed against your company... Stating facts that you cannot prove, trying to shift blame by stating your
not shifting blame, and trying to use a track record of past "support" does not make this statement effective. Instead Urban, you should learn how to write apathetically and praise the small designers, trend-setters, and businesses which you build your company's own trends upon. You may be 100% correct in your rebuttal, but you sound like a jaded high-schooler stating "I
had that dress first". Apologize, Apologize, apologize for the confusion, and then state facts in a unobtrusive manner to not pass blame on the accuser. You are a billion dollar business with research teams, and accounting and buying departments, she's a young designer who sees the big conglomerate company with her idea for sale. It's also not like we've neeeeeever seen you do this before... just state that you purchased product X at said time, show the purchase order with names blacked out and prove that you admired the product and found it last year. Case closed. If you need help, call me, I suggest next time not giving this press release to an anxty intern.
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13 comments:
Way to go Urban! You've managed to fuck yourselves over into a deeper grave than you began with when this whole thing came to light.
This reads almost like a legal defense (with less legalese) that slipped out and was leaked as a PR statement. Bad Urban, bad.
Ryan,
I love you buddy, I really do.
Please proof read your posts when you are calling someone out as it looks poorly on you when your grammatical errors are as bad as the creator of said letter.
As for the Urban Outfitters, for a company with such financial strength, one would only expect a response to any accusations such as this to be responded to by a legal team and not a staff intern.
This was a legal response. I see nothing wrong with it. They were being trash talked for days and just needed to set the record straight. They're not going to apologize for something they never did wrong!
Typical response from corporate legal. It actually is pretty well thought out and covers all the bases. Might not be as homey as you like, Ryan, but UO is protecting itself, not trying to help, and certainly not trying to hurt, small designers. I anticipate the issue will go no further, and UO will continue to work with many small designers. Mission accomplished.
i'm really not sure what to make of it all
jturner - thanks for the grammer lesson (not a writer, I pay people to do that, but you're right I had some shitty sentences in there, was wrote too quickly) but lets remember what we are looking at here, I talk about shoes for 5 minutes a day in between my multiple careers...
that was a "legal response" (as everyone thinks it is) that went out on a corporate blog from a company that employs over 100K people and even more counting the manufacturers and their online presence. I think that may be a tad more important...
I agree that it's a social media fail. What worked in the past, and a desire to defend oneself notwithstanding, the wording here should have been a bit less confrontational. A response of this tenor has the added benefit (¡) of scaring away self-respecting designers who might worry how Urban will respond should said designers find themselves in a similar predicament.
Let's be honest, that necklace is lame and unoriginal. She put a heart where stars or circles normally appear on a map and sold it as a necklace. I hate to say it, but a graphical interpretation of "home is where the heart is" is hardly an original or groundbreaking idea. Neat, yes. But very easy to come up with independently.
This is what UO really wanted to say, but used legalese instead of saying, "Your shit is wack".
This one's a little more blatant:
http://consumerist.com/2006/01/urban-outfitters-rips-designers-cupcake-t-shirt.html
Whether or not Urban Outfitters is to blame, their entire statement becomes irrelevant as they clearly just tried to "shift" the blame. All UO does is rip off designs- they just got called out this time. And, in my opinion, did a poor job writing about it.
this is why I refuse to shop at urban.
bunch of idiots that destroy anything good. example (sierra design) 3years too late.
Urban Outfitters went from being a tiny thrift shop in Philly in the 70's, that grew to one of the most dynamic and aspirational store to date in Cambridge (which is still there by the way). In the 80's. It now runs close to 150 some odd stores, not to mention its three other brands. All this was/is built on the shoulders of its employees from the bottom ranks to the top. The top operational managers today were the first store managers years ago. It's global CEO was the first store manager at the first Anthro store. I think Urban knows a thing or two about what is best for them.
Yup, Home Depot thought they were doing awesome with all their growth too... not saying the company is bad, I've made a shit load off their stock... just saying they need to learn the point of social media and publishing a dumbass poorly written statement on their blog... I dont care how big they are, in todays business world they need to think small.
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