Abercrombie & Fitch Homeless Campaign by Greg Karber Gives Store 'New Image'
Abercrombie & Fitch came under fire for its marketing plan, which excluded certain groups of people from purchasing its clothes. In response, Greg Karber decided to take action and distribute the brand's clothing to the homeless and film the entire interaction.
Abercrombie's CEO, Mike Jeffries, angered a great deal of people by saying that he didn't want certain people to wear his clothing. In an interview, Robin Lewis, of Business Insider, revealed that Jeffries didn't want "his core customers to see people who aren't as hot as them wearing his clothing."
"People who wear his clothing should feel like they're one of the 'cool kids. Abercrombie is only interested in people with washboard stomachs who look like they're about to jump on a surfboard," Lewis wrote. "That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores," Jeffries said.
"Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that. In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive, all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong in our clothes, and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."
Now Greg Karber decided to include everyone and "get revenge" on the company by specifically purchasing the brand's clothing from a local thrift store and going out on the street to hand it out to the homeless. It's a trend that is catching on with numerous people and has even sparked a Twitter trend, with the phrase #fitchthehomeless. More than 385,000 people have viewed Karber's video on YouTube, and while many praise Karber for his actions, there are others that criticize his work and claim it is "degrading" to the homeless who receive the clothes.
"It's degrading to the dignity of homeless people who instead of being part of something to change the society which makes it acceptable for such a large number of people to live in that situation, are the benefactors… He is focusing on the wrong thing because the things which will eradicate homelessness will also eradicate this company," miscpro posted on YouTube.
"Amazing idea seriously. People who are saying that what you [Karber] are doing is stupid are the ones that are stupid," heyybabe345 posted.
Watch Karber's video HERE:
