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MTV & Abercrombie & Fitch Duke It Out Over “The Situation” Wearing A&F

Posted by Shah Salimat on August 18, 2011 · 3 Comments 

I hate Jersey Shore.

Nothing spells DISGUSTING like a bunch of too-tanned and trash-talking Latinos with ridiculous hairstyles and even more ridiculous attitudes. (I’m exaggerating here but hey, Snooki’s a short joke. Oops, now does that sound familiar?)

But I also hate discrimination. (Coming from a Gaga stan. ‘Nuff said.)

So when Abercrombie & Fitch issued a press statement on Tuesday slamming Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of Jersey Shore infamy for wearing A&F merchandise and is willing to pay the fella to stop wearing their stuff, I just had to stop in my tracks.

Let’s back it up a bit here, because something’s clearly not right.

Why did Abercrombie & Fitch issue this why-is-Mike-disgracing-our-brand-name statement after THREE SEASONS of Jersey Shore? Did they have to wait that long to sit down, watch all the show footage (look who’s helping ratings!) and then collectively decide on the following joint message:

“Mike looks ugly in our stuff.”

(Mike + 3) x flashing underwear bands = one dirty BLT.

Well, I gotta say Mike looks ugly in anything (and so do a lot of matreps emulating this “void deck fashion icon”) but the move smells of hypocrisy and elitist disdain, to say the least.

These are the exact words in the “Abercrombie & Fitch Proposes a Win-Win Situation” 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.”

How "aspirational". The girl needs to stop hamming up the innocent love, imho.

Says the press release further: “We have therefore offered a substantial payment to Michael ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino and the producers of MTV’s The Jersey Shore to have the character wear an alternate brand. We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently waiting a response.”

MTV’s response? “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,” from an MTV spokesperson who is clearly trying to mask any form of expletives in a politically-correct sentence structure.

So maybe The Situation creates situations of revolting natures with his “style” (if you consider resting sunglasses lower on the nose bridge a fad). Maybe wearing A&F underwear way above his waistline is not really a tasteful way at professing brand allegiance. Maybe he should lay off the neon green A&F sweatpants and leave colour-blocking to Queen Elizabeth (it’s a turquoise skirt, no, it’s a turquoise blanket!).

But to bribe someone not to shame your brand further? Oh, hell no.

Abercrombie & Fitch, shame on you. Not for dictating fashion tastes (by the way, shirtless models and softcore lookbooks don’t really offset those ugly below-the-knee berms), but for discriminating differences.

If anything, Latinos are learning a thing or two about A&F from Mike. Like how NOT to wear their stuff.

#justsaying

xx Shah

UPDATE: Well-played, A&F. The statement was just meant to draw up media buzz ahead of its quarterly earning report. However, A&F stocks fell more than 8% after the press release was issued (whoa, since when did we report financial news?). Better watch out, A&F – a lot of Jersey Shore fans seem to be investors too. Perhaps they’re watching MTV in between trading breaks ;)