Paid Not to Wear Clothes?

Now I'm sure we all know that celebrities and television personalities are paid large sums of money to endorse, wear, and promote clothes, shoes, drinks, cereals and whatnot but have you ever heard of a company paying someone NOT to wear their clothes?

If you haven't heard the news Abercrombie & Fitch offered to pay Jersey Shore cast members NOT to wear their clothes. Well, that plan backfired big time with A&F's stock falling a HUGE 9% when this news broke. Abercrombie asked Mike Sorrentino better known as "the Situation" and the rest of the cast to not wear their clothes while filming their MTV hit "Jersey Shore".

I, for one, have never been a big fan of Abercrombie & Fitch. It's not readily available in Quebec but I was raised in Texas for a large portion of my life and guess what, I never bought their clothes, in fact I wouldn't even walk in their stores. I was just never attracted to it but I can guarantee you one thing though, if I WAS a fan of A&F this latest douchebag move of one of their executives would make me stop wearing it...Especially when he apparently didn't do his research. Guess what? Abercrombie & Fitch used to sell Jersey Shore t-shirts with their catch phrase G.T.L on it as well as other well known Jersey Shore sayings.

The head honcho's over at A&F thought that by the cast of the Jersey Shore wearing their brand that it was "causing significant damage to their brand" and  that the show was "contrary to the aspirational nature of the brand". Hmmmm looks like being a douchebag bigwig caused more damage to the brand than the Situation, Sammi Sweetheart, Snooki or others could have ever caused it.

I think I might have understood their outrage if it was a huge expensive company that associated itself with class. Imagine Snooki going out to a guido bar all decked out in head to toe vintage Chanel? I could understand Chanel being upset and their reputation hurt by that. Chanel is NOT cheap, it is NOT found in your local mall next to the Gap. But even then, I'm sure that Chanel has enough class not to pay someone not to wear their clothes.

Later in the day MTV released a statement thinking that maybe this was just a publicity stunt to get A&F's name out there...looks like that failed badly. Do you know how huge a 9% fall is in one day? After the market and stock was already falling to shit?

So I guess I'll keep in line with not buying A&F clothes and just stick to my Michael Kors, Prada, Miss Sixty etc. Oh, don't forget tomorrow is Jersday!! Do you have your GTL shirt? I'll be sporting this t-shirt tomorrow.