BUZZ NEWS
The Moral of the H&M Waste Debacle
When transparency rules the day, high-profile brands ought to know that everything they do is going to be ... well, treated in a high-profile manner.
This is at least one reason why H&M’s New York location should’ve known better than to mutilate, then trash, full bags of unsold clothes in the middle of the coldest season of the year.
It’s probably a story you already know: the clothes were found Monday night, and since then the brand’s taken a royal beating on Twitter. Angles of condemnation are endless! — Couldn’t you guys have donated that stuff? Didn’t you consider the environmental consequences of failing to reuse goods? What’s the markup on your production costs, anyway?!
The brand’s failure to seize the chance to rectify the problem before it blitzed across The Internets was also embarrassing: it was Cynthia Magnus, a graduate student, who found the 20+ bags of intentionally slashed or hole-punched unsold H&M clothing on her way to school. She contacted the store before taking further action, even offering to help connect the company to a local charity, and received no response.
The rest is Twistory. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
For her part, Magnus has committed to trying to restore what clothes she could, then redistributing them to chilly folk who could use a few extra layers.
What’s the PR word on the H&M front? "It is not our standard practice," spokeswoman Nicole Christie swears — but it stands to reason that if the New York store does it, others do too. Christie also assured the press that "It will not happen again."
It’s apparent in this case that H&M doesn’t get this social media thing, but it isn’t just them; I can think of a handful of retail companies that wouldn’t cast a second thought to their similarly wasteful practices because they are so deeply embedded in the culture of the company.
So let this be a lesson to brands: take a good hard look at your version of business-as-usual. We’re now operating in a space where any measure of hypocrisy, waste on a grand scale or abuse of power can be broadcast from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds. Act preemptively: Would your workflow pass the Twitter test?
And in the event you do get caught doing something dumb, don’t look cock-eyed into an armada of cameras and claim this isn’t "standard practice." It cheapens your apology and makes your commitment to change incredibly unconvincing.
Image credit: Suzanne Dechillo/The New York Times.
Sources:
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Comments
1. Monday 11 January 2010 attime 10:48, by Frederique :: hd2
2. Tuesday 12 January 2010 attime 12:33, by Angela
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