Last week, apparel brand Abercrombie & Fitch offered to pay MTV Jersey Shore castmate Mike “The Situation” to stop wearing its clothing. Evidently, the brand does not want to be associated with Jersey Shore’s shenanigans, stating in a press release “We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that 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.” Well, Abercrombie & Fitch’s stock price subsequently dropped 8%, prompting “The Situation” to retort (on Twitter), “Looks like Abercrombie got themself [sic] into a Situation!”

Well, MTV has officially responded, stating, “It’s a clever PR stunt, and we’d love to work with them on other ways they can leverage Jersey Shore to reach the largest youth audience on television.”

Well, what do you think? PR stunt or authentic brand image protection?

We’ll keep you updated if the bickering continues.

Tags: branding, celebrities, pr, public relations, retail, viral marketing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 at 6:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.