Alright. Before we get this party started, let’s start with some laugh candy from forever ago (compliments of Mad TV) to show that this Abercrombie hoopla is nada new:
Now, then…
Although Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries is press-shy and your info on him might be limited to the few interviews he’s deigned to deliver (or more likely just a few memes floating around with a quote about how he’s ostracized the super-sized), let me give you a few fun facts:
1. His company jet employee dress code includes flip flops, A&F cologne, and boxers under low slung jeans. They also must reply to any and all requests with “no problem”. Nothing else.
2. He says “Dude” a ridiculous amount and constantly reminds everyone he’s “not an old guy” (he’s almost 70).
3. Everyone close enough to know him (and willing to comment) says he’s obsessive (yet the most driven and detail oriented man they know), always goes through revolving doors twice, and won’t pass anyone on a staircase – regardless of its width.
4. His headquarters in Ohio is referred to as a “campus” – designed indeed to look like a college campus mixed with a hunting lodge while a nightclub soundtrack blares on repeat – but it operates more like a cultish compound of carefree beautiful young people.
Now, if you haven’t seen the recent uproar about this guy, it’s something like this:
However, as with all biased quotes, the last part is missing. He adds: “Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. The companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla… You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”
Here we go:
Does his face look like a cartoon? Yes. Is he trying to relive a past he never had and in denial that he’s 70? Yes. Has he had lawsuits against him? Yes. Is what he has to say offensive to people who are overweight? Yes. But that plastic bigoted face of his is laughing all the way to the bank. Why? The reverse psychology of this kind is evil-genius marketing at its best.
I’m not saying what he has to say is “nice”. But if you show the world something and say it’s only meant for the few who workout and have a good attitude, suddenly two camps form: those who want in on it and those who will hate on it. Either way, you’ve got people talking about your company… and that makes you relevant.
Think about it. Bebe and a plethora of other skinny-bitch stores also don’t carry XL sizes… but they don’t spotlight their “exclusionary” characteristics or talk about it at all. You don’t see a lot of their CEO’s on the top-paid list, either.
Try to think of it this way:
A brand new nightclub goes up in L.A. and word spreads like wildfire that it’s the “place” to be, endorsed and patronized by Hollywood’s elite, but – obviously – very exclusive. Laden with the red carpet atmosphere and velvet ropes, you arrive to learn that the basic bitches are being barred from entry, while the sleek and chic glamazons are being ushered through.
You stop to look at one before she shimmies in, and realize something: with her salon hair color, the extensions, the makeup, and the glitzy gear she’s donning, she might not be heading inside to play if you took all that away.
But don’t you think for one second she doesn’t know that about herself. In fact, she probably was making a checklist of everything she planned to change during her plane ride to L.A. when she decided she wanted to be rubbing elbows with the beautiful and rich. So she tweaked a few things and, voila – she was right where she wanted to be.
Metaphorically, that’s also where Mike Jeffries wanted to be back in his formative years, while he was disappointing his father by being awful at basketball and not the typical jock. The big difference between Jeffries and my hypothetical rope-rat girl is that (while they both favor guys over girls), his “Hollywood elite” target is really the “popular kid clique” at AnySchool, USA and the “Night Club” was a dying company that he turned into his own club: Abercrombie & Fitch.
He didn’t just tweak a few things and get into that club, though. He turned his negative adolescent hangups into a means to get into the club, own it, and morph it into something that was considered “cool” enough to earn him a take home of over $48 mill a year versus… I don’t know… becoming a cynical internet troll who hates their life and their job. No one talks about the nameless jerk online who fat bashes people. Why? Because he’s not making money off it. No one knows his name. He doesn’t have a private jet.
That being said, I think his quote could have been relayed in a better manner and he may have taken a risk with it. There are numerous euphemisms to drive your “exclusivity” point about your target demographic home. The idea is to have just enough haters to envy you; not to have everyone hate you to the point where they boycott your clothing.
We’ll see how this famous quote-made-meme-gone-viral affects A&F.
In the meantime, if you forget his name and want to reference it in the next conversation you have about what a douche he is, just use this device I made up: “Mike” sounds like “Mickey”, and his total face transplant was about as successful as Mickey Rourke’s was. As for “Jeffries”? Well, he has picture of a toned male torso hanging over the fireplace at home… just like “Jeffrey” Dahmer used to.
That – or this much easier one: Michael Jeffries also sounds like “Michael Jackson”. Both have had excessive surgery, a Neverland ranch style compound, lived in perpetual denial that they’d ever aged past their prime, and thus surrounded themselves with young boys to perpetuate said delusion.
You’re welcome!
xoxo
<3~A