Spiking someone’s drink is no laughing matter
Bloomingdale’s had a lot of ‘splainin to do after a ridiculously inappropriate ad ran in the store’s new holiday catalog. Take a look and we’ll dive in after the jump:
Yes, this is a real ad that was undoubtedly created by a team of marketers, vetted by at least one higher-up at Bloomingdale’s, then actually inserted into a catalog and shipped out. While Bloomingdale’s certainly could’ve used the help of our Avoid the Apology service before giving this one final approval, the retailer was instead left eating crow as the Internet took it to task for the decidedly cringey and concerning concept.
With terms like “creepy” and “horrific” being associated with the ad we expected a wholehearted apology and explanation of how the company will prevent such mistakes from happening again, perhaps even a vow to share holiday profits with an appropriate foundation or nonprofit group. Instead what we got was the following statement via Facebook:
In reflection of your feedback, the copy we used in our recent catalog was inappropriate and in poor taste. Bloomingdale’s sincerely apologizes for this error in judgement.
Posted by Bloomingdale’s on Tuesday, November 10, 2015
If you’re anything like us this apology fell flat, coming off more as something Bloomingdale’s felt it was required to do rather than anything remotely approaching sincere. The bottom line here is that both the ad and the emotionless apology point create the perception of a serious problem corporate culture at the retail establishment. Whether that’s true would likely be a point of contention for higher-ups at the company, but the phrase “perception is reality” is cliche for a reason, and stakeholders are shouting from the rooftops that something’s wrong at Bloomingdale’s.
The BCM Blogging Team
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com