Michael Jordan
Case Study
By
Kelly McKenna
Comm 473
INTRODUCTION
Michael Jordan is more than just an amazing basketball player, he has branded himself into one of the most recognizable people in the world.
Michael through the quality of the product (being himself) he has become and huge marketing success. In order to see how this was possible we need to start at the very beginning of Michael’s road to success.
RESEARCH
Michael Jordan was actually cut from his high school basketball team as a sophomore. Instead of giving up after failing to make the team, Jordan used it as fuel himself, practicing hour after hour on the court. "Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it," Jordan said, "and that usually got me going again." He eventually made the team and led it to the state championship.
Jordan went on to play for the University of North Carolina where he was named College Player of the Year in 1983 and 1984. Ultimately Jordan was chosen as the third overall pick in the NBA draft after his junior year and started his career with the Chicago Bulls.
The year before Michael arrived in the Chicago Bulls number 23 uniform, attendance at games in Chicago averaged 6,365 fans a game. However, after Jordan signed on despite their poor record, attendance nearly doubled. In years following Chicago stadium would be full almost every night as people all over the country gathered to witness a piece of sports history in the making.
Michael became a superstar winning countless awards and recognition such as 5 Most Valuable Player awards, 6 NBA finals NBA MVP awards, 14 NBA All Star appearances, holds NBA record for highest career regular season scoring average, ten scoring titles, 3 steals titles, and Jordan also played on two Olympic Gold Medal winning teams.
The list is endless and ultimately catapulted him into a world of fame through his talent on the court.
Everyone could recognize Michael Jordan. He became a household name. Not only did he become a household name through his talent on the court, but off the court through endorsements Michael Jordan began to build one of the most recognizable brands of our time, Michael Jordan himself.
Michael has built an empire where he is the ruler. “No sport is too obscure to have its legions of coaches, fans, opponents, writers and publicists ready to crown a king. In sports, there's only one king: Michael Jordan,” according to a New York Times article by Caitlin Lovinger.
Michael Jordan is a quality product that never let us down. Jordan has put himself on the highest pedestal. Any company that he decides to back instantly gains credibility by association with Michael Jordan the brand.
"If you set out to create the perfect sports pitchman, you couldn't come up with anything better than Michael Jordan," said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports, a sports marketing firm,” The Michael Jordan brand remains extremely viable," he said.
PLANNING/BRAND BUILDING
Be Like Mike…Drink Gatorade
Gatorade came out with an ad campaign in 1991 “Be Like Mike…drink Gatorade”. Like Mike become the theme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak&NR=1 If you want to be Like Mike, where his shoe line, or his cologne, even his underwear! Eat the food he eats, drink the drink he drinks, opportunities were endless. Marketers and PR people ran with this idea. Through Michael’s worldwide acclaim and credibility many products signed on with him to endorse their products. Before he knew it Michael Jordan was
Is it the shoes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abr_LU822rQ
Introduced in 1985 was Michael Jordan’s shoe line Air Jordans. Prior to this launch Nike had no recognition in the basketball world. They were characterized by running shoes marketed to a largely white target audience. The launch of this brand sparked an athletic shoe phenomenon. Before the Jordan release players generally wore plain white sneakers. However the bold black and red design shocked the sneaker world. The NBA has banned the shoes originally but Jordan wore them anyway receiving fines totaling up to $5000 per game. Along with Michael Jordan’s image as a quality brand and they are seen as such.
In the film “Like Mike” the main character finds magical sneakers that allow him to play “Like Mike”
“It’s all good until I get my first scuff…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSKkbrRnkYw
Don’t Step on My J’s music video. Air Jordan’s have become a staple in the hip-hop community. Anybody who is anybody has the most exclusive sneakers. Air Jordan’s took the sneaker world to another level as a trend and a fashion statement. They are a premium, high quality, high priced product that are featured in this music video and are talked about in numerous hip-hop/rap songs.
Space Jam
"C'mon, Michael, it's game time. Get your Hanes on, lace up your Nikes, grab your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we'll pick up a Big Macon the way to the Ball Park", Stan Mike’s sidekick in the film poking fun at Michael’s endorsements. Product placements were also placed throughout the film always keeping brand building in mind.
1996 Michael Jordan starred in this family friendly film alongside Bugs Bunny. The film grossed $230 million dollars and was highly successful.
OBJECTIVES
Marketing campaigns continue with Michael Jordan long after his retirement as a one of the best (if not the best) athlete of our time.
''We are looking at marketing more Michael the person,'' according to Larry Miller President for Nike’s Jordan Division, ''Things like hard work and dedication, excellence and being prepared. It's not focusing on whether he can score 40 points, it's the characteristics that made Michael able to score 40 points.''
This is important because Michael Jordan isn’t just recognized by basketball followers or even just athletes, he is one of the most recognizable people of our time overall. “Even people who don't know basketball know Michael Jordan. He has the kind of star power that projects beyond the court, beyond sport, even beyond the border,” said by CBS’s Richard Schlesinger. This in my opinion is why he has been such a successful brand.
Marketers feel that the baby boomers are the demographic that most identifies with the Jordan and that might create opportunities down the road for endorsements in insurance and financial services to pitch to the loyal Jordan consumers.
Michael Jordan has completely transformed sports marketing and the role of celebrity endorsers. Forbes has estimated his annual endorsement income at $45 million which was the highest of any pro athlete.
Jordan has multiyear deals from Nike, General Mills, Quaker Oats Co.'s Gatorade, Rayovac Corp. and Hanes to name a few. This allows him to remain one of the leaders for years to come.
Analysts estimated his endorsements generate $500 million in sales for the companies he represents. (Wayne Friedman Advertising Age 1999 article)
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Air Jordans by Nike
A division of NIKE, Inc., Jordan Brand is a premium brand of footwear, apparel and accessories inspired by the dynamic legacy, vision and direct involvement of Michael Jordan. The Jordan Brand made its debut in 1997 and has grown into a complete collection of performance and lifestyle products for both men and women. The Jordan Brand remains active in the community by donating a portion of its proceeds to Jordan Fundamentals, an education grants program for teachers.
EVALUATION
The Breakdown of the “Jordan Empire”:
(From Daily News article in 1999 by Phyllis Furman)
-Contract with the Chicago Bulls: $ 33 million a year.
-Commercial endorsements for such companies as Nike, MCI WorldCom, Gatorade, McDonald's and Hanes: $33 million
-Warner Bros. movie Space Jam grossed $230 million
-Books based on Jordan's life including Rare Air: $17 million.
-Michael Jordan cologne from designer Bijan: $155 million
-Air Jordan line of footwear and apparel with long-time partner Nike expected to bring in tens of millions.
-Hanes line of Michael Jordan underwear: $10 million a year
-Restaurants, Michael Jordan's The Steak House NYC, and Chicago
-Jordan Sports videos, including Michael Jordan: Come Fly with Me: $80 million
Across the board Michael Jordan’s success can be seen. He began he story as a basketball superstar but in addition to his numerous accomplishments on the court, has become an icon off the court as well. Michael Jordan is a quality product we trust. His liability and credibility make him extremely valuable as a branded figure.
Michael Jordan also has the ability to withstand the test of time. Even though his career as a basketball player has been over for years now, he is very much an active part of our lives. Michael continues to push the values that built him and made him the successful brand he is today.
We can learn from Michael Jordan’s success the important of audience perception and credibility. We also can see the power of celebrity endorsements. Whether we like it or not, the media has great power. Michael has used that power to build is own branded empire.
CASES SIMILAR TO MIKE
We can look at a few cases of other individuals who have branded themselves in a similar way. We can look at people like Tiger Woods, David Beckham and even Oprah Winfrey. They are all celebrities in the public eye who use the quality of themselves as a product to endorse other products.
Oprah
Oprah Winfrey has worked very hard and succeeded on numerous levels at developing herself as a brand. Winfrey is a credible source trusted by her audience. Any book that goes on Oprah’s Book Club List is always an instant best seller. Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, frequently featured on her show, are both instantly viewed as highly credible sources by her association. Oprah’s Favorite Things episodes feature things she enjoys for the upcoming seasons, and generally all the products fly off the shelves after she endorses them. Through her television show, magazine, production company and much more Oprah has found widespread recognition as a brand herself.
Tiger
Tiger Woods has become a huge success in the world or sports marketing and branding. Woods has a multi million dollar contract with Nike. Tiger exclusively wears Nike apparel and plays with Nike balls and clubs. In addition, Nike Golf brand extensions have been created. Woods has his own brand of Gatorade and millions of dollars of endorsements with a variety of quality companies as well. Tiger Woods is well on his way to being a highly recognized brand. I could personally see Woods giving Michael a run for his money in the future. It will be interesting to see the branding progresses in the future.
Beckham
David Beckham is recognized as a brand as well. Beckham has teamed up with big name partners like Adidas, Gillette, Motorola and Pepsi. Beckman is recognized as the Michael Jordan of soccer. Soccer is a sport that although doesn’t have wide appeal in the United State, but has massive success and respect around the world. This is something that makes Beckham a very important brand as he was more world wide recognition.
Even a powerful brand like David Beckham finds himself star struck by someone like Michael Jordan. Beckham was overwhelmed when he found himself at the same restaurant as Jordan. “"The most star-struck I have ever been was when I met Michael Jordan in a restaurant - even though he was sat at a table with Madonna.” According to an article by Richard Simpson from The Evening Standard in London.
Nonetheless, they are all likely to be compared against Mike. Oprah is the Michael Jordan of talk show hosts. Tiger is the Michael Jordan of golf and Beckham is the Michael Jordan of soccer. Although they may come close, in my opinion they do not compare to Michael Jordan success, strength and quality as a recognized brand.
MICHAEL JORDAN TODAY
Become Legendary
Integrated marketing campaign featuring Michael Jordan and an All-Star “Team Jordan” launched in 2008.
The campaign’s slogan is “Become Legendary” as an inspirational tribute to Michael Jordan. The campaign is also celebrating the 23rd year of the success of the brand Air Jordan. "The Air Jordan XX3 is a benchmark achievement for Jordan Brand because it culminates the success of the brand's contribution to the athletic footwear industry and the significance of the number 23," according to Howard White, Vice President, Jordan Brand in an article from BNET Buisness Network.
“Team Jordan” athletes will include Ray Allen, Carmelo Anthony, Derek Jeter, Terrell Owens, Chris Paul and many others. The campaigns goal is to reach for your dreams and accheive on and off the court. The launch of the Air Jordan XX3 and the new brand signature signals a transition from Michael Jordan as a player to a coach so that all people can look to follow in his footsteps to “Become Legendary” in their own right,”according to Jordan Brand Manager Roman Vega.
PR PROFESSIONAL
Kris Peterson
I spoke with Kris Peterson who works as a Director of Communications with Penn State Woman’s Basketball. She believed that Michael Jordan was one of the most recognizable celebrities of our time. She also mentioned that many younger athletes wear number 23 because it’s branded as a number that conveys power, strength or skill as an athlete. Players pick the number to represent something that Michaels stands for and because they probably respected him or were inspired by him as an idol when they were growing up.
Peterson believed Jordan was a huge marketing success and that anything with Michael Jordan’s name on it receives instant credibility because of the name behind it. Consumers across all boundaries trust Michael Jordan, not just athletes, but everyone knows the name and what he stands for as a quality brand.
MY OPINION
Know what your good at. In class we talk about sticking to your niche. Michael obviously has his own Jordan shoe brand with Nike that is solely his product, his name his brand extension of himself. However, Mike tried his talents on baseball. And although he is a great marketing success and basketball success, baseball was not Jordan’s niche. That’s the only negative critique I have on this case of Michael Jordan as a brand.
Works Cited Page
Lovinger, C. (1997). Ideas and Trends: They Are Sort of Like Mike [Electronic version].
The New York Times. from Lexis Nexis.
Simpson, R. (2001, November 23). Two Men I Look Up To, by Beckham. The Evening Standard. from Lexis Nexis.
Furman, P. (1999, July 14). The Jordan Buisness Empire. The Daily News. from Lexis Nexis.
What Does $250 Million Smell Like? Ask Michael. (1999, October 25). Business Wire. from Lexis Nexis.
Friedman, W. (1999, January 18). Jordan the Star Athlete Retires, Jordan the Brand Comes to Life. Advertising Age. from Lexis Nexis
Jordan Brand Unveils 'BECOME LEGENDARY' New Brand Campaign in Celebration
of the Air Jordan Legacy. (2008, January 8). Business Wire. from Lexis Nexis.
Dukcevich, , D. (2001, September 28). Michael Jordan Profile. from www.Forbes.com
Michael Jordan. (2008, October 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Jordan&oldid=242752327
Vancil, M. (1991, December). Michael Jordan: Phenomenon. Hoop Magazine. From
www.nba.com
Air Jordan #23: A Tribute to Michael Jordan. from www.jordan23.com
Michael Jordan Bio (2008). Retrieved October 6, 2008, from www.nba.com
The New York Times
January 17, 1999, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
Ideas & Trends; They're Sort of Like Mike BYLINE: By CAITLIN LOVINGER
FOR some people, life without Michael Jordan is unthinkable. But although Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls and the game of basketball last week, there's still a Michael Jordan of snowboarding. And a Michael Jordan of bull riding. Even a Michael Jordan of real-life bulls.
No sport is too obscure to have its legions of coaches, fans, opponents, writers and publicists ready to crown a king. In sports, there's only one king: Michael Jordan…..
The Evening Standard (London)
November 23, 2001
The two men I look up to, by Beckham BYLINE: Richard Simpson
WHO makes Britain's bestknown male celebrity starstruck? The answer came today when David Beckham revealed it was American R'n'B star Usher and basketball player Michael Jordan.
In a Radio 1 interview today, Beckham, 26, says he was so overawed when he met Michael Jordan at a restaurant that he just sat there staring until wife Victoria berated him.
The England captain said: "The most star-struck I have ever been was when I met Michael Jordan in a restaurant - even though he was sat at a table with Madonna.
"I was just staring saying 'God - that's Michael Jordan!' "Madonna sent a bottle of champagne over and we had to say thank you. Michael Jordan stood up and shook my hand - and his hand covered the whole of my arm. I had met Madonna a couple of times before and Victoria had met her too. I'd like to swap places with Michael Jordan for a week."
Beckham also said he idolised Usher. He said: "Usher asked if he could get a ticket for a game.To meet him was really good - but quite nerve-racking." He went on: "There are certain people I look up to.
Sportsman-wise I have always looked up to people like Muhammad Ali, and football-wise Eric Cantona and Bryan Robson are my heroes." He also spoke about the way the public treats him now."The reaction has been amazing. But it's always been like that really. Since the Greece game, it's been phenomenal."
Daily News (New York)
January 14, 1999, Thursday
THE JORDAN BUSINESS EMPIRE BYLINE: By PHYLLIS FURMAN Daily News Business Writer
Don't cry for Michael Jordan.
The basketball legend is leaving the NBA, but he will continue to score as one of the most sought-after pitchmen in sports.
The Chicago Bulls star is the world's highest-paid athlete endorser, netting $ 50 million for touting such world-class companies as Nike, MCI WorldCom, Gatorade and McDonald's.
"If you set out to create the perfect sports pitchman, you couldn't come up with anything better than Michael Jordan," said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports, a sports marketing firm.
"The Michael Jordan brand remains extremely viable," he said.
Commerce Secretary William Daley yesterday said Jordan has about a $ 10 billion affect on numerous arenas and the impact (of his resignation) is enormous.
Jordan's contract with the Chicago Bulls paid him $ 33 million a year.He earns $ 33 million from commercial endorsements for such companies as Nike, MCI WorldCom, Gatorade, McDonald's and Hanes, making him the world's highest-paid sports pitchman.Thanks to Jordan's star power, the Warner Bros. movie "Space Jam" grossed$ 230 million. Books based on Jordan's life, including blockbuster "Rare Air," have logged nearly $ 17 millionin sales. Michael Jordan cologne from glitzy designer Bijan has generated sweet revenues of $ 155 millionThe Bulls star recently launched his own line of footwear and apparel with long-time partner Nike. It's expected to bring in tens of millions. A Hanes line of Michael Jordan underwear, valued at $ 10 million a year, adds even more to the athlete's empire. Jordan has two restaurants, Michael Jordan's The Steak House NYC, and another in Chicago, to put some more green into his pocket. Jordan Sports videos, including "Michael Jordan: Come Fly with Me," flew off the shelves to the tune of $ 80 million
Advertising Age
January 18, 1999
JORDAN THE STAR ATHLETE RETIRES, JORDAN THE BRAND COMES TO LIFE
BYLINE: Wayne Friedman
With his retirement from basketball, the transformation of Michael Jordan from superstar athlete to venerable megabrand is complete. And Nike will be the first to take advantage of that.
Starting this summer, Nike for the first time will extend the Jordan line of basketball shoes and apparel into other sports. The first product will be a cross-training shoe under the Jordan Brand, handled by Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Baseball, football, running and tennis products also are being considered.
''Nike started as a running company and then grew into a number of other categories,'' said Larry Miller, president of the Jordan division at Nike. ''We think we have the same opportunity starting with basketball and expanding into other sports as a true sports brand.''
Life after Michael Jordan's basketball career is as key an issue for Nike as it is for the National Basketball Association and its TV partners. Some 5% of all Nike revenue, about $370 million, comes from Mr. Jordan's line of basketball shoes and apparel.
AN IMAGE TRANSCENDING SPORTS And like most of Mr. Jordan's business partners, Nike believes the superstar's brand image transcends sports and will be viable long after his basketball career has ended.
''We have the most recognized person in the world,'' Mr. Miller said. ''His appeal transcends sports, gender, race and age. We think that appeal is going to continue into the future.''
It will be a slightly different appeal, though. Nike expects to alter the ways in which it markets the Jordan Brand now that the Chicago Bull has hung up his uniform for the second -- and probably final -- time.
''We are looking at marketing more Michael the person,'' Mr. Miller said. ''Things like hard work and dedication, excellence and being prepared. It's not focusing on whether he can score 40 points -- it's the characteristics that made Michael able to score 40 points.''
Other marketing executives agree the Jordan brand has considerable staying power.
''His name as a brand will not only go well beyond his playing career but beyond his life span,'' said Tom George, senior VP-athlete marketing for sports marketing agency Advantage International.
Some products, Mr. George said, won't perform as well over the long term.
In particular, he pointed to licensed products such as Michael Jordan lunch boxes and backpacks, noting that fickle kids are constantly shifting their loyalties.
BABY-BOOM LOYALTY
Baby boomers are the demographic that most identifies with the 35-year-old Mr. Jordan, Mr. George said, and that could create new endorsement opportunities down the road in such areas as insurance and financial services.
Mr. Jordan virtually singlehandedly created the modern sports marketing industry and transformed the role of celebrity endorsers. Forbes has estimated his annual endorsement income at $45 million, the highest of any pro athlete.
And with multiyear deals from Nike, General Mills, MCI WorldCom, Quaker Oats Co.'s Gatorade, Rayovac Corp. and Sara Lee Corp.'s Hanes, Mr. Jordan will continue to be the frontman for a range of consumer product companies for at least the next 10 years.
Analysts estimated his endorsements generate $500 million in sales for the companies he represents.
''Thirty years from now, he'll still be one of the top five sport endorsers,'' said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports Celebrity Service.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
TRUTH case study
TRUTH: Anti-Smoking as a Brand
Situation Analysis:
Smoking among the children and teens was, and still is, a serious issue effecting youth all across the country. Since the beginning of cigarette sales, it has been a main focus of tobacco companies to portray people smoking cigarettes as being rebellious and “cool”. This image has gone from men to women and now the most problematic, to young children and teens. Tobacco companies have been able to increase sales by selling their products to younger and younger audiences despite efforts to educate these audiences about the potential dangers of smoking cigarettes. About 80 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18, which accounts for tobacco industries targeting young adults. Previous effects failed to address the underlying issues and change their perception of smoking. The truth® Anti Smoking Campaign came along just in time to address the lies coming from tobacco industries and force kids to act.
The truth® campaign is an anti-smoking campaign that got its start in Florida in 1997. Through elaborate evaluation and research the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program (FTPP) were able to launch their new campaign. During this beginning, Florida won a milestone victory against the tobacco industry giving them $13 billion a year for a span of 25 years and $200 million is for the state run program to fight youth tobacco use. The campaign was able to pitch to young teens the idea of anti-smoking being “cool” by directly including teen contribution to appeal to that audience. This helped to brand the image by adding a level of trust and legitimacy to fuel the movement. Teens were now rebelling against tobacco companies by joining this anti-smoking movement, rather than rebelling by smoking. Smokers were being lied to and the “truth” was being set free through this campaign. The messages produced through the truth campaign spoke directly to a younger audience in a memorable and impacting way that made them listen to the truth about tobacco companies and how it directly affected them as a consumer of their products.
As the campaign began to grow, the American Legacy Foundation took the reins in the year 2000 to control the campaign and it began to evolve into what we know it is today. The American Legacy Foundation is a nonprofit anti-smoking organization dedicated to preventing teen smoking and encouraging smokers to quit. They brought the efforts used in Florida’s campaign as a jump start on the campaign for other states. Now, truth® is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaigns biggest goal is to expose the tactics of tobacco industries, the truth about addiction and health effects so teens have the ability to make informed decisions about tobacco products.
Research:
During the first year of the campaign independent surveys were conducted to collect baseline data. In addition, later on surveys were conducted to assess the success of their campaign. The surveys yielded the following results in three key fields. They were, increased brand awareness, increased behavior and attitude change, and decrease in teen smokers.
The campaign had set a goal to have 85% of those surveyed recognize them as brand and they surpassed that goal by achieving 92% before the year was over. In regard to attitude and behaviors, surveys showed students were 2.3 times more likely to say they were influenced by the campaigns message. In addition, they were able to attract 10,000 middle school and high school teens to join their youth advocacy program. Between 1998 and 1999, the number of middle and high school teens defined as "current smokers" declined by 19.4 percent and 8.0 percent respectively. Twenty-nine thousand Florida teens made the decision to not smoke during that time period, ten thousand of whom would likely have continued smoking and died early as a result.
According to the American Legacy Foundation, Research has found that the truth campaign accelerated the decline in youth smoking rates between 2000 and 2002. Twenty-two percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during these years is attributable directly to the truth campaign, according to research published in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
The study, which was the first to evaluate the behavioral outcomes of the truth® campaign, found that in 2002 there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers as a result of the campaign efforts. The study assessed whether there is a “dose-response” relationship between the level of exposure to the campaign and changes in youth smoking rates during the first two years of the campaign, 2000–2002. Results showed that youth who were exposed to a greater number of truth® ads or got a “dose” of truth were less likely to smoke.
Research released in September 2007 found that the truth® campaign may also be changing teens’ perceptions about how common smoking is among their peers. A study conducted by RTI International and funded by the American Legacy Foundation indicated that teens exposed to the truth® campaign have a more accurate view of the number of their peers who smoke. Teens with less exposure to the campaign believed smoking was more common among people their age. The finding is good news for the truth® campaign because teens’ perception of the prevalence of peer smoking has been shown to predict future smoking. This knowledge gives teens a new realization that they are not following the crowd by smoking. That smoking is not something that “everyone” is doing and that takes pressure of them in trying to take part in something that they thought was “cool”.
Ultimately the truth® campaign has played a major role in the decrease of smoking among children and young teens. The positive effects can still be seen today. Current research is helping to shape the ever changing campaign including its most recent launch, “The Sunny Side of Truth.”
Planning:
The truth® campaign was set to target children ages 12-17. In addition to being the target, they were also a large part of the overall process. Children were asked their opinions and ideas to help shape the campaign into something they could relate to and want to be a part of.
The campaigns goals were to communicate messages about the health effects, social costs and addictiveness of tobacco. Teens are involved in testing all truth® advertising concepts.
The “in-your-face” messages presented in their commercials are the most recognizable aspects of the truth® campaign. American Legacy Foundation went right to the source through media outlets directly marketing and advertising through media outlets. Truth® went to television networks geared to teens such as MTV, BET, USA, ABC Family, VH1, and fuse.
The truth® campaign also has their own interactive Web site that allows teens to engage in the anti-smoking movement “on their own terms”. The site includes games, videos, facts, and articles relevant to their lifestyle in order to educate and make them aware about the benefits of not smoking.
The ads themselves have evolved throughout the campaign. In its early beginnings, in the infect truth® campaign, we remember the ads with the body bags placed outside a major tobacco company representing the massive amounts of youth cigarettes were killing every day. In 2003 we saw the introduction of “Crazy World” commercials where smoking and information from tobacco industries were illustrated as a crazy side show from a circus. In 2004 we were exposed to seek truth® and connect truth® campaigns where the truth® campaign went back on the streets with questions and answers about tobacco were shown in strange ways, like on a dumpster and manikins throughout city streets.
Later on in 2006 we see the emergence of the “whudafxup” ads. The new theme presents its anti-smoking message in a more intangible, conversational manner, documentary style, often with actor Derrick Beckles. Ads include an interview with a dairy farmer about a tobacco company claim that milk is more harmful than second hand smoke, and interviews with gun store owners analogizing the non-existence of "light" bullets with the harmfulness of even light cigarettes. Also in 2006 there was infect truth® where a memorable commercial of a cowboy dressed man using an electric voice box to sing a song about, “You won’t always die from tobacco”, exposing other effects like losing your own voice box. Today the campaign has taken the “Sunny Side of Truth approach” with a new angle and new commercials to captivate their audience by putting a “sunny side” to the negative effects of smoking. For example, smoking while you’re pregnant causes underweight babies and tobacco company executives said women would prefer smaller babies. Their positive spin on this was smaller babies were easier to handle, revealing how appalling this statement really was.
In addition to advertising, truth® is always looking for new innovative ways to reach teens. They have been able to do this through various partnerships such as Virgin Mobile USA and fuse cable channel. truth® and Virgin Mobile USA teamed up to provide free air time minutes to pay-as-you-go phone customers if they viewed and responded to truth® ads.
Truth® and the fuse cable channel partnered through the Vans Warped Tour. Truth® traveled with the tour through various grass roots marketing tactics as they traveled from city to city. Fuse featured interviews and documentaries from the tour every Wednesday on there “Warped Wednesday show. The truth® presence could be seen not only at the concerts, but also on television through the fuse network.
Social networking has become one of the most effective methods the truth® campaign has taken to spread the truth about smoking.
Execution:
Various awareness tactics were executed throughout the truth® campaign. Since the beginning of its run in 1998 until now we have seen it change and evolve to cater to its target audience. The truth® campaign is able to communicate its messages about the health effects, social costs and addictiveness of tobacco through the following campaigns that have been very effective over the truth campaign course and continues to get stronger with its new ideas to reach teens. In 2000 truth® was launched at a youth summit that was attended by 1,000 teens from across the country. In 2001 and 2002, infect truth® educated teens on the facts about cigarette design and engineering. A Look Behind the Orange Curtain launched from 2002 to 2003 shed light on the tobacco industry’s marketing tactics and included such topics as addiction and the health consequences of smoking.
Next came Crazyworld in 2003 that showed teens how tobacco companies play by a different set of rules than other companies. Tobacco companies do the opposite of what other companies do with their products. While many companies recall products at the first sign of danger to a consumer, the tobacco industry makes a product that kills 1,200 of its customers every day. Connect truth®, Shards O’Glass, and Seek truth® was issued in 2004. Connect truth® used orange dots to connect together pieces of information to reveal a larger picture about effects of smoking and the chain of events from tobacco products to consumer illnesses and then to death. Shards O’Glass featured a fictitious company that manufactures freeze pops with glass shards in them, a dangerous product analogous to cigarettes. The ad is meant to raise consumer awareness about the harmful effects of smoking. Seek truth® used the Q&A format to encourage teens to ask questions and seek answers about the tobacco industry and its marketing and manufacturing practices.
Fair Enough in 2005 took a new approach to advertising with a sitcom-style television campaign that featured a cast and theme music. The commercials used tobacco industry documents to reveal marketing ideas. Truth® found, from 2005 to 2006, pointed big orange arrows at some of the people and places targeted and affected by Big Tobacco companies. Also in 2006 was truth® documentary and infect truth®. Truth® documentary used a documentary filmmaking style to capture real people’s reactions to the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry. It was called truth® documentary for the style in which the ads were shot, featuring one correspondent and a camera crew investigating the reasoning behind some ideas from Big Tobacco. Infect truth® called attention to the marketing tactics and health consequences of the tobacco industry in such a way as to “infect” people with that knowledge and encourage active peer-to-peer participation. Finally in 2008 is The Sunny Side of truth® using animation, music, Broadway-style choreography and sarcasm to illustrate the “sunny side” of smoking tobacco.
Social networking has become one of the most effective methods the truth campaign has taken to spread the truth about smoking. Social networking sites allow the truth® campaign to spread its important messages quickly and cheaply. The truth® campaign has targeted many of the most popularly used social network sites used by teens and all sites give teens the ability to play games, download screensavers and desktop themes, use do-it-yourself print tools, visit mini-sites, view TV spots, and access tobacco fact-based messaging systems, and post discussions on smoking-related topics. They include MySpace, Xanga, Hi-5, Bebo, and Facebook that includes a support truth feature where users can add it as a “cause” on their individual Facebook profiles. The Facebook “Causes” application links to more than one million nonprofit organizations, allowing users to join or create causes about which they are passionate. It also features “Truth or Dare” based on the game truth or dare. Users can either answer a question about them or take a challenge to do some “mischief” on Facebook. For every challenge completed or question answered the user gains points to move up the “Truth or Dare” leader board.
More recently, in June 2008, truth issued the Remix project where Dj’s and bands remix songs for the “Sunny side of Truth” commercials. These songs will not only be packaged in CD format but will also be available for download on the internet through a special section on the truth Web site and on social networking pages such as MySpace, Facebook, Hi-5 and others, even availability to get the songs on their mobile phones. There will also be video downloads available that show the Dj’s and bands behind the scenes making the music and speaking of why they decided to get involved in the program.
There is also the truth® tour, which launched its 9th annual nationwide summer tour on June 13 at JubileeJAM! an arts and music festival in Jackson, MS. During the tour, “crew members” interact with local youth to spread information about the addictiveness of tobacco products, the adverse health effects of tobacco use, and the social consequences of smoking. Crew members are able to connect with over 700,000 teens at popular summer events every year.
Evaluation:
The truth® campaigns success in reaching children and teens through their commercials and interactive websites is not only seen in the decline in numbers of young smokers and the increase in awareness of the campaign, but it has also been nationally recognized by many organizations for their success. They have won over 300 awards in various categories including Webby awards, honoring excellence on the internet, Emmy Awards recognizing excellence within various areas of the television industry, The Clio Awards recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design in a variety of fields,including television, print, radio, and others and
The Effie Awards honoring Ideas that Work—the great ideas that achieve real results and the strategy that goes into creating them.
In evaluating the success of the truth® campaign can be seen in the results of studies done about the advertisements. Seventy-five percent of all 12 to 17 year olds in the nation, approximately 21 million, can accurately describe one or more of the truth® ads. Nearly 90 percent of youths aged 12 to 17, approximately 25 million, said the ad they saw was convincing. Also, Eighty-five percent, approximately 24 million said the ad gave them good reasons not to smoke. Not only was truth® able to get its message across to the millions of people studied here but they were able to remember, recognize it and it made an impact on them enough to rethink their option to smoke cigarettes or use other tobacco products. As stated earlier studies have found that in 2002 there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers as a result of the campaign efforts. In Florida between 1998 and 1999 when the campaign was just beginning, the number of middle and high school teens defined as "current smokers" declined by 19.4 percent and 8.0 percent respectively. Twenty-nine thousand Florida teens made the decision to not smoke during that time period. As the campaign progressed and became more aggressive in its tactics and successful in gaining teen attention, the amount of responses against tobacco use has also grown.
Public Relations Expert:
We communicated with Milli Mike a Communications Specialist at the American Legacy Foundation. Since 2000, the truth® campaign has hit Big Tobacco where it hurts most—with its own words. It’s why truth® has been proven to keep teens from smoking. The campaign is able to sell itself on cold hard facts. Consider these facts presented in a news release from January 2008 discussing their most recent Sunny Side of Truth approach to their campaign which Milli provided us with,
“Consider the following facts about the tobacco industry:
- The industry has been found by a Federal judge to have manipulated the amount of nicotine delivered by its cigarettes to create and sustain addiction.1 At the same time, research indicates that nicotine is highly addictive.
- Research has shown that the tobacco industry “youth prevention” ads aimed at parents actually increased the likelihood that teens will smoke in the future
- Finally, according to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2005 the industry spent nearly 36 million dollars each day marketing its products in the U.S. alone.”
This has allowed for the truth® campaign to year after year be a continued success. Through their new and innovative ideas and commercials that catch our eye, they are able to get their message out to a target audience effectively, the present the facts. Relaying the truth® to the public is their job and their mission, and they continue to do it well.
Milli also sent us information about some of the new approaches the campaign has taken to keep is fresh and new with the changing times. This summer the truth® campaign went on tour. Not literally themselves but they did piggy back on some of the coolest events of the summer reaching a wide audience. This included Tony Hawks Book Boom HuckJam, Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, Jubilee!Jam, and Rock the Bells 2008. According to Cheryl G. Healton, president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, in a June 2008 press release, “The truth® tour continues to be one of the most important ways we bring the truth® youth smoking campaign to life and face-to-face with the increasingly fragmented youth audience in America, so we’re delighted this year’s tour will be seen at such a variety of events that are cool and popular with the teen audience.”
Situation Analysis:
Smoking among the children and teens was, and still is, a serious issue effecting youth all across the country. Since the beginning of cigarette sales, it has been a main focus of tobacco companies to portray people smoking cigarettes as being rebellious and “cool”. This image has gone from men to women and now the most problematic, to young children and teens. Tobacco companies have been able to increase sales by selling their products to younger and younger audiences despite efforts to educate these audiences about the potential dangers of smoking cigarettes. About 80 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18, which accounts for tobacco industries targeting young adults. Previous effects failed to address the underlying issues and change their perception of smoking. The truth® Anti Smoking Campaign came along just in time to address the lies coming from tobacco industries and force kids to act.
The truth® campaign is an anti-smoking campaign that got its start in Florida in 1997. Through elaborate evaluation and research the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program (FTPP) were able to launch their new campaign. During this beginning, Florida won a milestone victory against the tobacco industry giving them $13 billion a year for a span of 25 years and $200 million is for the state run program to fight youth tobacco use. The campaign was able to pitch to young teens the idea of anti-smoking being “cool” by directly including teen contribution to appeal to that audience. This helped to brand the image by adding a level of trust and legitimacy to fuel the movement. Teens were now rebelling against tobacco companies by joining this anti-smoking movement, rather than rebelling by smoking. Smokers were being lied to and the “truth” was being set free through this campaign. The messages produced through the truth campaign spoke directly to a younger audience in a memorable and impacting way that made them listen to the truth about tobacco companies and how it directly affected them as a consumer of their products.
As the campaign began to grow, the American Legacy Foundation took the reins in the year 2000 to control the campaign and it began to evolve into what we know it is today. The American Legacy Foundation is a nonprofit anti-smoking organization dedicated to preventing teen smoking and encouraging smokers to quit. They brought the efforts used in Florida’s campaign as a jump start on the campaign for other states. Now, truth® is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaigns biggest goal is to expose the tactics of tobacco industries, the truth about addiction and health effects so teens have the ability to make informed decisions about tobacco products.
Research:
During the first year of the campaign independent surveys were conducted to collect baseline data. In addition, later on surveys were conducted to assess the success of their campaign. The surveys yielded the following results in three key fields. They were, increased brand awareness, increased behavior and attitude change, and decrease in teen smokers.
The campaign had set a goal to have 85% of those surveyed recognize them as brand and they surpassed that goal by achieving 92% before the year was over. In regard to attitude and behaviors, surveys showed students were 2.3 times more likely to say they were influenced by the campaigns message. In addition, they were able to attract 10,000 middle school and high school teens to join their youth advocacy program. Between 1998 and 1999, the number of middle and high school teens defined as "current smokers" declined by 19.4 percent and 8.0 percent respectively. Twenty-nine thousand Florida teens made the decision to not smoke during that time period, ten thousand of whom would likely have continued smoking and died early as a result.
According to the American Legacy Foundation, Research has found that the truth campaign accelerated the decline in youth smoking rates between 2000 and 2002. Twenty-two percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during these years is attributable directly to the truth campaign, according to research published in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
The study, which was the first to evaluate the behavioral outcomes of the truth® campaign, found that in 2002 there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers as a result of the campaign efforts. The study assessed whether there is a “dose-response” relationship between the level of exposure to the campaign and changes in youth smoking rates during the first two years of the campaign, 2000–2002. Results showed that youth who were exposed to a greater number of truth® ads or got a “dose” of truth were less likely to smoke.
Research released in September 2007 found that the truth® campaign may also be changing teens’ perceptions about how common smoking is among their peers. A study conducted by RTI International and funded by the American Legacy Foundation indicated that teens exposed to the truth® campaign have a more accurate view of the number of their peers who smoke. Teens with less exposure to the campaign believed smoking was more common among people their age. The finding is good news for the truth® campaign because teens’ perception of the prevalence of peer smoking has been shown to predict future smoking. This knowledge gives teens a new realization that they are not following the crowd by smoking. That smoking is not something that “everyone” is doing and that takes pressure of them in trying to take part in something that they thought was “cool”.
Ultimately the truth® campaign has played a major role in the decrease of smoking among children and young teens. The positive effects can still be seen today. Current research is helping to shape the ever changing campaign including its most recent launch, “The Sunny Side of Truth.”
Planning:
The truth® campaign was set to target children ages 12-17. In addition to being the target, they were also a large part of the overall process. Children were asked their opinions and ideas to help shape the campaign into something they could relate to and want to be a part of.
The campaigns goals were to communicate messages about the health effects, social costs and addictiveness of tobacco. Teens are involved in testing all truth® advertising concepts.
The “in-your-face” messages presented in their commercials are the most recognizable aspects of the truth® campaign. American Legacy Foundation went right to the source through media outlets directly marketing and advertising through media outlets. Truth® went to television networks geared to teens such as MTV, BET, USA, ABC Family, VH1, and fuse.
The truth® campaign also has their own interactive Web site that allows teens to engage in the anti-smoking movement “on their own terms”. The site includes games, videos, facts, and articles relevant to their lifestyle in order to educate and make them aware about the benefits of not smoking.
The ads themselves have evolved throughout the campaign. In its early beginnings, in the infect truth® campaign, we remember the ads with the body bags placed outside a major tobacco company representing the massive amounts of youth cigarettes were killing every day. In 2003 we saw the introduction of “Crazy World” commercials where smoking and information from tobacco industries were illustrated as a crazy side show from a circus. In 2004 we were exposed to seek truth® and connect truth® campaigns where the truth® campaign went back on the streets with questions and answers about tobacco were shown in strange ways, like on a dumpster and manikins throughout city streets.
Later on in 2006 we see the emergence of the “whudafxup” ads. The new theme presents its anti-smoking message in a more intangible, conversational manner, documentary style, often with actor Derrick Beckles. Ads include an interview with a dairy farmer about a tobacco company claim that milk is more harmful than second hand smoke, and interviews with gun store owners analogizing the non-existence of "light" bullets with the harmfulness of even light cigarettes. Also in 2006 there was infect truth® where a memorable commercial of a cowboy dressed man using an electric voice box to sing a song about, “You won’t always die from tobacco”, exposing other effects like losing your own voice box. Today the campaign has taken the “Sunny Side of Truth approach” with a new angle and new commercials to captivate their audience by putting a “sunny side” to the negative effects of smoking. For example, smoking while you’re pregnant causes underweight babies and tobacco company executives said women would prefer smaller babies. Their positive spin on this was smaller babies were easier to handle, revealing how appalling this statement really was.
In addition to advertising, truth® is always looking for new innovative ways to reach teens. They have been able to do this through various partnerships such as Virgin Mobile USA and fuse cable channel. truth® and Virgin Mobile USA teamed up to provide free air time minutes to pay-as-you-go phone customers if they viewed and responded to truth® ads.
Truth® and the fuse cable channel partnered through the Vans Warped Tour. Truth® traveled with the tour through various grass roots marketing tactics as they traveled from city to city. Fuse featured interviews and documentaries from the tour every Wednesday on there “Warped Wednesday show. The truth® presence could be seen not only at the concerts, but also on television through the fuse network.
Social networking has become one of the most effective methods the truth® campaign has taken to spread the truth about smoking.
Execution:
Various awareness tactics were executed throughout the truth® campaign. Since the beginning of its run in 1998 until now we have seen it change and evolve to cater to its target audience. The truth® campaign is able to communicate its messages about the health effects, social costs and addictiveness of tobacco through the following campaigns that have been very effective over the truth campaign course and continues to get stronger with its new ideas to reach teens. In 2000 truth® was launched at a youth summit that was attended by 1,000 teens from across the country. In 2001 and 2002, infect truth® educated teens on the facts about cigarette design and engineering. A Look Behind the Orange Curtain launched from 2002 to 2003 shed light on the tobacco industry’s marketing tactics and included such topics as addiction and the health consequences of smoking.
Next came Crazyworld in 2003 that showed teens how tobacco companies play by a different set of rules than other companies. Tobacco companies do the opposite of what other companies do with their products. While many companies recall products at the first sign of danger to a consumer, the tobacco industry makes a product that kills 1,200 of its customers every day. Connect truth®, Shards O’Glass, and Seek truth® was issued in 2004. Connect truth® used orange dots to connect together pieces of information to reveal a larger picture about effects of smoking and the chain of events from tobacco products to consumer illnesses and then to death. Shards O’Glass featured a fictitious company that manufactures freeze pops with glass shards in them, a dangerous product analogous to cigarettes. The ad is meant to raise consumer awareness about the harmful effects of smoking. Seek truth® used the Q&A format to encourage teens to ask questions and seek answers about the tobacco industry and its marketing and manufacturing practices.
Fair Enough in 2005 took a new approach to advertising with a sitcom-style television campaign that featured a cast and theme music. The commercials used tobacco industry documents to reveal marketing ideas. Truth® found, from 2005 to 2006, pointed big orange arrows at some of the people and places targeted and affected by Big Tobacco companies. Also in 2006 was truth® documentary and infect truth®. Truth® documentary used a documentary filmmaking style to capture real people’s reactions to the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry. It was called truth® documentary for the style in which the ads were shot, featuring one correspondent and a camera crew investigating the reasoning behind some ideas from Big Tobacco. Infect truth® called attention to the marketing tactics and health consequences of the tobacco industry in such a way as to “infect” people with that knowledge and encourage active peer-to-peer participation. Finally in 2008 is The Sunny Side of truth® using animation, music, Broadway-style choreography and sarcasm to illustrate the “sunny side” of smoking tobacco.
Social networking has become one of the most effective methods the truth campaign has taken to spread the truth about smoking. Social networking sites allow the truth® campaign to spread its important messages quickly and cheaply. The truth® campaign has targeted many of the most popularly used social network sites used by teens and all sites give teens the ability to play games, download screensavers and desktop themes, use do-it-yourself print tools, visit mini-sites, view TV spots, and access tobacco fact-based messaging systems, and post discussions on smoking-related topics. They include MySpace, Xanga, Hi-5, Bebo, and Facebook that includes a support truth feature where users can add it as a “cause” on their individual Facebook profiles. The Facebook “Causes” application links to more than one million nonprofit organizations, allowing users to join or create causes about which they are passionate. It also features “Truth or Dare” based on the game truth or dare. Users can either answer a question about them or take a challenge to do some “mischief” on Facebook. For every challenge completed or question answered the user gains points to move up the “Truth or Dare” leader board.
More recently, in June 2008, truth issued the Remix project where Dj’s and bands remix songs for the “Sunny side of Truth” commercials. These songs will not only be packaged in CD format but will also be available for download on the internet through a special section on the truth Web site and on social networking pages such as MySpace, Facebook, Hi-5 and others, even availability to get the songs on their mobile phones. There will also be video downloads available that show the Dj’s and bands behind the scenes making the music and speaking of why they decided to get involved in the program.
There is also the truth® tour, which launched its 9th annual nationwide summer tour on June 13 at JubileeJAM! an arts and music festival in Jackson, MS. During the tour, “crew members” interact with local youth to spread information about the addictiveness of tobacco products, the adverse health effects of tobacco use, and the social consequences of smoking. Crew members are able to connect with over 700,000 teens at popular summer events every year.
Evaluation:
The truth® campaigns success in reaching children and teens through their commercials and interactive websites is not only seen in the decline in numbers of young smokers and the increase in awareness of the campaign, but it has also been nationally recognized by many organizations for their success. They have won over 300 awards in various categories including Webby awards, honoring excellence on the internet, Emmy Awards recognizing excellence within various areas of the television industry, The Clio Awards recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design in a variety of fields,including television, print, radio, and others and
The Effie Awards honoring Ideas that Work—the great ideas that achieve real results and the strategy that goes into creating them.
In evaluating the success of the truth® campaign can be seen in the results of studies done about the advertisements. Seventy-five percent of all 12 to 17 year olds in the nation, approximately 21 million, can accurately describe one or more of the truth® ads. Nearly 90 percent of youths aged 12 to 17, approximately 25 million, said the ad they saw was convincing. Also, Eighty-five percent, approximately 24 million said the ad gave them good reasons not to smoke. Not only was truth® able to get its message across to the millions of people studied here but they were able to remember, recognize it and it made an impact on them enough to rethink their option to smoke cigarettes or use other tobacco products. As stated earlier studies have found that in 2002 there were approximately 300,000 fewer youth smokers as a result of the campaign efforts. In Florida between 1998 and 1999 when the campaign was just beginning, the number of middle and high school teens defined as "current smokers" declined by 19.4 percent and 8.0 percent respectively. Twenty-nine thousand Florida teens made the decision to not smoke during that time period. As the campaign progressed and became more aggressive in its tactics and successful in gaining teen attention, the amount of responses against tobacco use has also grown.
Public Relations Expert:
We communicated with Milli Mike a Communications Specialist at the American Legacy Foundation. Since 2000, the truth® campaign has hit Big Tobacco where it hurts most—with its own words. It’s why truth® has been proven to keep teens from smoking. The campaign is able to sell itself on cold hard facts. Consider these facts presented in a news release from January 2008 discussing their most recent Sunny Side of Truth approach to their campaign which Milli provided us with,
“Consider the following facts about the tobacco industry:
- The industry has been found by a Federal judge to have manipulated the amount of nicotine delivered by its cigarettes to create and sustain addiction.1 At the same time, research indicates that nicotine is highly addictive.
- Research has shown that the tobacco industry “youth prevention” ads aimed at parents actually increased the likelihood that teens will smoke in the future
- Finally, according to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2005 the industry spent nearly 36 million dollars each day marketing its products in the U.S. alone.”
This has allowed for the truth® campaign to year after year be a continued success. Through their new and innovative ideas and commercials that catch our eye, they are able to get their message out to a target audience effectively, the present the facts. Relaying the truth® to the public is their job and their mission, and they continue to do it well.
Milli also sent us information about some of the new approaches the campaign has taken to keep is fresh and new with the changing times. This summer the truth® campaign went on tour. Not literally themselves but they did piggy back on some of the coolest events of the summer reaching a wide audience. This included Tony Hawks Book Boom HuckJam, Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, Jubilee!Jam, and Rock the Bells 2008. According to Cheryl G. Healton, president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, in a June 2008 press release, “The truth® tour continues to be one of the most important ways we bring the truth® youth smoking campaign to life and face-to-face with the increasingly fragmented youth audience in America, so we’re delighted this year’s tour will be seen at such a variety of events that are cool and popular with the teen audience.”
HPV case study
HPV Campaign: “One Less” To Battle Cervical Cancer
Situation Analysis
In the 1950’s, cervical cancer was the leading cause of deaths from cancer among women. Although advancements in screening and pap tests have helped 70% of women who would have died from cervical cancer, approximately 10,000 women in the US are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and approximately 3,500 women die from it. Cervical cancer is especially a problem in developing countries where about 200,000 women die each year. A virus called the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, is the cause for almost all cases of cervical cancer. The most common cancer causing types of the virus are 16 and 18 which is responsible for causing 70% of all cervical cancer. Both women and men become infected with HPV through sexual intercourse and sexual contact and may never know if they have it because there are no signs or symptoms of HPV. Most women will be exposed to HPV in their lifetime and in most cases the virus goes away by itself, but in some it can eventually turn into cervical cancer. Early detection and prevention of the HPV virus from turning cells in the cervix into cancer cells is the only way to prevent cervical cancer.
Merck &Co., Inc., a global research pharmaceutical company, developed the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine in 2006 called Gardasil. The vaccine prevents HPV types 16, 18 that relate to 70% of cervical cancer cases, and types 6 and 11 that cause genital warts. The vaccine was FDA approved on June 8, 2006 for woman ages 9 to 26. By November 2006 Merck announced its national print, television and online advertising for the Gardasil campaign. Along with Merck’s educational efforts about cervical cancer and HPV, the campaign called One Less encourages females who are eligible for the vaccine to start the three shot series and see a doctor regularly for screenings and check-ups. The one less campaign is designed to inform and empower girls and women to become “one less” person to develop cervical cancer. Merck is committed to the public awareness of HPV and education of the disease through the Tell Someone and Connection multi-lingual disease awareness programs to broaden the education of the HPV virus and its connection to cervical cancer. Merck also works towards making Gardasil available in developing countries where cervical cancer is a most important woman’s health issue killing about 200,000 women each year. Around the world there are at least 500,000 new cases that are diagnosed annually and 80% of them are in developing countries.
Merck made attempts in making the series of Gardasil shots mandatory for young women and there were considerations for these requirements in some states such as, Texas and Minnesota (Childs, 1). Mandates that Merck was attempting to instill in some states was rejected because it was thought, especially by parents, that since Gardasil is aimed at girls as young as nine years old, it would encourage promiscuity. Since HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, it could give young girls a wrong impression that they are protected from diseases if they are sexually active, which is not the image Merck wanted to give to young girls about Gardasil. In an article titled, “Political Intrigue in Merck's HPV Vaccine Push” from 2007, Mary Elizabeth Blake the senior director of public affairs for the Merck vaccine division, made a response to this through e mail. She stated, "We … do not want any misperception about Merck's role to distract from the ultimate goal of fighting cervical cancer, so Merck has re-evaluated its approach at the state level and we will not lobby for school requirements for Gardasil," (Childs, 1). Merck retracted its efforts in making mandatory vaccinations for young girls to go through in some states because it distracted from the original effort to educate women of various ages of the HPV virus and how it can form into cervical cancer. Merck realized that they may have pushed too hard too fast making mandates for the vaccine because the public needed time to realize that the vaccine worked before they can make it mandatory for young girls, and potentially hurt them. Though the vaccine is a positive effort for all girls to participate in, a new product such as this cannot be pushed onto them before they feel safe. Merck made a very good decision to pull away from its push to make the vaccine mandatory and recognizing that although they know the vaccine will help in reducing the number of deaths from cervical cancer, they needed the public to believe this on their own and continue their efforts in educating the public about HPV before they can issue mandates on the vaccine.
Research
In researching which types of the HPV virus the Gardasil vaccine would work to prevent, Merck ran a series of tests using their target audience. An article from 2007 titled, “HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS; Research from Merck & Company, Inc., Department of Health has provided new information about human papillomavirus”, stated that Merck’s study populations consisted of women from the United States, ages 16-23, having zero to five lifetime sexual partners, never having been pregnant, and never before have had an abnormal pap. test. These women underwent DNA tests every six months for a 48 month duration that tested HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18. After two clean swab samples that were negative to any types of HPV infections, the duration of swab samples were tested for exposure to the four types of HPV Gardasil prevents. In conclusion to the researchers study, the tests showed that HPV 16 and 18 durations were twice as much as HPV types 6 and 11. The statistic that HPV types 16 and 18 account for 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases was proved to be true here in the study because it showed up twice as much as the other two types of HPV viruses that was tested.
With studies conducted by Merck that compared women, ages 24 to 45, who have had the vaccine to prevent HPV types 16, 18.6, and 11 to women who were given placebos instead of the vaccine. Results showed that Gardasil prevented, “91 percent of cases of persistent infection, low-grade cervical abnormalities, and pre-cancers, and external genital lesions caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 compared with placebo in women aged 24 through 45” (Cancer Vaccines, 1756). This study in 2007 helped Merck provide information to present to the FDA for approval in expanding the Gardasil vaccine to women up to age 45. The results from these various tests indicate that women have potential to be infected with the HPV virus throughout their lifetime and the vaccine can help prevent these threats at various ages. Referenced in the same article titled, “CANCER VACCINES; New Data Presented on GARDASIL(R), Merck's Cervical Cancer Vaccine, in Women Through Age 45”, from 2007, is data from the International Multi-Center study, which is designed to examine Gardasil and involved more than 3,800 women in its study. It found that women who did not have any HPV infections remained that way throughout the series of vaccines and at the end of the third vaccine. It showed that there were 41 cases of infection in the placebo group and only 4 cases in the group who received the vaccine having a 91 percent reduction, and Gardasil also reduced abnormal Pap tests showing HPV types 16 and 18 by 94 percent. During these studies, the only undesirable experiences were those at the injection site consisting of, “erythema, pain, pruritus, swelling and warmth” (Cancer Vaccines, 1756), which were higher in the vaccine group than the placebo group.
Merck researched the vaccine before FDA approval in 2006 and continued to expand its research so the vaccine could be used to its full capability in many age groups from young girls to women. Currently, there has been some research done to expand the vaccine to men as well as women. Because the HPV virus is sexually transmitted, the vaccine given to men can further help to prevent the spread of the virus even before it is presented in women. An article titled, “Gardasil vaccine now offered to boys, young men”, states that by 2009 boys will have the option to also take Gardasil to further prevent cervical cancer. Arguments for the issue of the vaccine for boys are that not only will it help prevent cervical cancer, but will also prevent genital warts for boys. Some of the same arguments against issuing this vaccine for boys is the same issues for young girls. The same risk of increased promiscuity can be seen here, now boys will have the reassurance that they are safe from spreading genital warts and HPV to girls through sexual intercourse. It could make the desire to have safe sex more desirable at a younger age. Even though the use of condoms helps prevent other sexually transmitted disease, HPV can be transferred from skin to skin contact and condoms do not cover the entire genital area. If Merck would like to issue the vaccine eventually for boys, they will have to go through the same precautions as they did when issuing it to young girls and have a tactic that will talk to parents of boys as well who may be unfavorable in submitting their sons to a vaccine meant to prevent cervical cancer.
Planning
Before Gardasil was approved by the FDA in 2006, Merck had the “Tell Someone” campaign already in action. The “Tell Someone” campaign focused on giving information about HPV and cervical cancer to women and stressing the importance of passing this information on to other women. Merck was able to stress the dangers of this virus and the importance of finding a way to prevent this virus from spreading to others. It was a good introduction for the need of the Gardasil vaccine and an excellent way building up anticipating a cure for the virus that women have now already learned was an important and ongoing problem for young girls and women. The “Tell Someone” campaign focused more on informing mothers and having them tell their daughters about HPV and the dangers of it turning into cervical cancer. The types of commercials that showed mothers with their daughters were often shown after shows that reflected families or mother daughter relationships such as “Gilmore Girls”. Focusing on parents to tell their children about these dangers kept the campaign on an informational level and did not pertain to the vaccine yet. This type of planning allowed Merck to focus on developing the vaccine and getting it approved while parents learned of something that was a danger to their children while waiting for a breakthrough that will help them, beyond just the efforts of just having information about the disease.
When Gardasil became approved by the FDA in 2006, by November of that year Merck launched its “One Less” campaign. In an article titled, “The Gardasil HPV Vaccine: Not the Shot in the Arm Merck Hoped for” from the PR watch. Org website, Edelman Public Relations Company, the largest independently owned PR company with 46 offices and 50 affiliates around the world, implemented the “One Less” campaign. This campaign took off of the informational campaign ideas of the “Tell Someone” campaign, but now there was something that women could do about the risk of getting an HPV infection and that was to get a three series shot of the Gardasil vaccine. The “One Less” campaign urges girls to become one less statistic of cervical cancer by taking the precaution of having the Gardasil vaccine to become one less person to struggle through cervical cancer. The commercials from this campaign featured a variety of girls from skateboarders to dancers who wanted to become “One Less” cervical cancer victim. The commercials had some information about the HPV virus and how it can later lead to cervical cancer, and encouraged girls to find out more information by consulting their doctor.
Merck then followed some of the same tactics from the “Tell Someone” campaign when they slightly changed the “One Less” tactic to the “I Chose” campaign. This issued some images of mothers who have already implemented the vaccine to their daughters saying, “I chose to get my daughter vaccinated”, and also confessions from girls saying, “I chose to get vaccinated after my doctor told me Gardasil does more than help prevent cervical cancer." Merck’s advertising plan followed the path that women were taking while Gardasil had been a product for some time. It started with providing information, then when the vaccine was approved it showed women having the desire to become one less person to fight cervical cancer, then showed women who have already taken the vaccine why they chose and why mothers have chosen to help their daughters, and in the end showing women that they have the power to choose to take the vaccine. Also, as the “Tell Someone” campaign was shown after popular women television shows, Merck bought a 60 second slot for HPV advertising before the “Sex and the City” movie in theaters. Merck’s research showed, “76 percent of young women between the ages of 19 and 26 described advertising they saw before a movie as entertaining. But here's the clincher: The same young women said they pay more attention to ads on a movie screen than on television." (Siers, 1).
In the 2008 campaign year, the department of health appointed Consolidated PR to manage the public relations campaign to continue to raise awareness of HPV and the Central Office of Information (COI) managed the pitch. In a press release titled, “Department of Health appoints Consolidated to deliver HPV Vaccine PR”, it is said that this campaign will run from May 2008 till April 2009. Liz Fay, Board Director at Consolidated who will lead the agency team said in this article, "This is a vaccination of huge significance in the war against cancer as it will save lives today and for generations to come. It's not without its complexities and challenges though so our job is keep the communications consistent, clear and open. Working closely with the other marketing disciplines, the role for PR is to keep the momentum going to ensure that girls and their mums feel informed and compelled to opt in”.
The newest set of commercials on television at the moment is commercials that go back the awareness tactic of providing important information about the HPV virus. Merck has made a much more simple commercial series that features only words on a yellow screen stating an HPV fact, and then a Merck logo comes into the corner as hpv.com is shown under the fact. The same commercial, only with different facts shown, is currently being run on television. This approach urges watchers to find out more facts about HPV by logging onto the Website where all of the facts that are randomly shown on the commercials can be seen at once and then you have the options of searching how to protect yourself and get all of the HPV information. This breaks away from the “One Less” and the “Tell Someone” campaigns because it does not issue women or girls telling others about the vaccine, but just gives a small amount of information about HPV to intrigue people to inform themselves about the virus, cervical cancer, and the vaccine that can help prevent this infection.
Execution
Merck’s established its message through a variety of commercials and Web sites. The “Tell Someone” campaign’s main focus was to educate young women and their parents by giving them information on what HPV is and how it can change into cervical cancer. It encouraged its audience to protect the ones they love by telling them the potential dangers of being infected with an HPV virus. Their Web site is designed in this way featuring facts on HPV and surrounded with statements such as, “Tell someone…Tell your best friend, your sister, your daughter”, and “Help protect your future and the future of those you love. Ask your doctor about ways to help prevent HPV and its consequences”. In implementing a campaign focused on education the Gardasil target audience, and its intervening audiences, it enabled Merck to start the publicity needed to make the demand for the vaccine strong as soon as it was available for use.
The “One Less” campaign and the “I Chose” campaign both were geared directly to the Gardasil vaccine, and both are directed to the Gardasil Web site. The “One Less” commercials are some of the most recognized where they show a number of young women from different backgrounds becoming one less women to battle cervical cancer by taking the vaccine. The “I Chose” campaign spoke to the same group of women, but it took an angle of showing everyday mothers with their daughters and stating that they chose to get their daughter vaccinated followed by other young women saying they chose to be one less. Gardasil is shown on these spots as the only vaccine to battle cervical cancer, there is no information on the HPV virus like there was in the first informative method through the “Tell Someone” campaign.
The newest campaign through HPV.com gears women to learn more about HPV. Through the other campaigns women learned the facts about Gardasil and the types of HPV that it prevents. The HPV.com Web site gives 20 easy to remember and to the point facts about HPV and what it means for women. The new commercials show one fact at a time and encourage watchers to go to the Web site and learn more. For women who have not had the vaccine that has been advertised for two years, this gives them the knowledge of what HPV is, that it is a serious infection for women, and now there is something they can do about it. The execution of Web sites and commercials is specific to the campaigns target audience and its intervening audience, and it follows the path of information women should have about HPV, Gardasil and cervical cancer. It has been able to look at new angles through different commercials and target women that may not have taken the initiative to protect themselves from HPV and, potentially, cervical cancer.
Evaluation
There were many studies conducted, and there are still studies being done, but all have shown that Gardasil prevents HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18. It was impossible and unethical to allow women to develop cervical, vaginal or vulvar cancers just to prove that the vaccine helped to prevent them. In an article titled, “The Value of Gardasil”, a doctor responds to false facts about Gardasil that the National Post included in its article, “Is the HPV Vaccine worth It?” Dr. Francois Bertrand, M.D., is executive director, medical research, for Merck Frosst Canada issued the response and he described Gardasil in a favorable medical matter. He explained that through many studies, some including 3,000 girls and boys ages 9 to 15, which answered three questions about the vaccine: whether the vaccine was safe, whether it worked and whether it was efficacious. In immune response studies, the vaccine created a strong immune response to fight against the virus when it appeared in the subjects. In the effectiveness studies, women from ages 16 to 26 were studied because it would not have made sense to use subjects for a sexually transmitted disease if they were never in contact with the virus because of this reason. The results from these studies showed that Gardasil helped protect females from the four types of HPV that Gardasil targets. Dr. Bertrand explains the type of medical burdens that women have to go through even with abnormal pap tests, “But the real point is that deaths from cervical cancer are just the tip of the iceberg. What about the 325,000 abnormal Pap results and the women who undergo colposcopies and biopsies because of them? Or the 36,000 cases of genital warts causing 85,000 medical consultations across the country every year? Can anyone estimate the financial and psychological burden of all this? HPV types 6 and 11 cause 90% of genital warts. Results published in The New England Journal of Medicine show that Gardasil is 99% effective in preventing those cases.”
Gardasil studies have shown that the vaccine is almost guaranteed to help prevent HPV infections of the four types it targets in subjects who have never been exposed to HPV. Some studies say it is 100% effective in preventing cancerous and precancerous cases. However, studies still show that women who are already sexual active can still benefit from the vaccine. Even if sexually active women have been exposed to HPV, it is not likely they were exposed to all of the HPV types; therefore, Gardasil will still prevent the four HPV types from occurring.
There have also been studies resulting in significant changes in abnormal pap tests. Abnormal pap tests were reduced by 43% compared to women who did not receive the Gardasil vaccine. This reduction was in tests for pre-cancerous cell changes and there was also a 16% to 35% reduction in milder pre-malignant cell changes (News medical). This study also found that Gardasil reduced cervical biopsies by 42% compared to women without the vaccine.
In my evaluation of everything I have read on Gardasil and HPV, Merck has found their niche in developing the first vaccine to battle four types of HPV. Two of which are responsible for 70% of all cervical cancer cases. The way they advertised the product through Web sites and commercials gave women the information they needed, even before the vaccine was available, to understand that infections with HPV can occur without any signs or symptoms and can potentially lead to cervical cancer. Being the only vaccine to help prevent this problem makes them the leader in the battle against cervical cancer. This also makes Gardasil prone to medical scrutiny and has had many objections to its attempts in mandating the vaccine. Merck was able to handle these problems by stepping back with its push to make the vaccine for young girls mandatory. The vaccine needs to establish its importance among parents of young girls and the commercials took a step in focusing on mothers who have chosen to get their daughters vaccinated.
In looking into adverse effects of Gardasil, I found some cases, other than the side effects that are included as a warning with the vaccine which are pain, swelling, itching, and redness at the injection site, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and fainting. There have been 11 deaths reported in 2007 that were said to be related to the Gardasil vaccine. In further looking into these reports, there was no proof that these deaths had any direct relation to the vaccine. Overall, the vaccine is the only preventative method against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 and is working to expand the vaccine to help women up to the age of 45, and eventually will be extending the vaccine to men to further the attempts of lowering the number of cervical cancer cases.
Professional Interview
I was able to interview Dr. William Dickerman, my family physician who has been practicing medicine for 25 years. He has been giving the Gardasil vaccine for a little over a year now and recommends it highly. “I encourage my patients to get the vaccine. Cervical cancer is significant concern in women’s health and this is the only vaccine that prevents certain HPV’s.” When asked if any of his patients told him where they heard of Gardasil if it was not suggested by him, he said, “A lot of my younger patients said it was suggested by friends or family, and some of them already knew what HPV is and that Gardasil can help.”
Dr. Dickerman did acknowledge that there are some side effects to the vaccine serious ones can be avoided, “There are always some concerns when it comes to new medicines or vaccines, but there are certain criteria that doctors follow for each patient in checking their history and making sure there are no allergies to the substance in the vaccine.” In referencing side effects to the vaccine he also said, “I have only had one abnormal reaction to the vaccine and that was with your sister. On the first shot of the three shot series, about two minutes after the shot was given to her she fainted. It was not serious, as you know she woke a few minutes later and never had any reactions to the other two shots.” My younger sister did have a negative reaction to the first shot, but she has had a history of becoming fatigue and has fainted before when she needed a vaccine given to her.
Overall Dr. Dickerman felt that the messages given to women through commercials and on Web sites was positive. “As a doctor I highly recommend young women to get vaccinated, and I inform my patients about the risks of HPV infections. I think the efforts that Merck has put into educating women of Gardasil and what it does have been very effective and has made women want to help themselves by talking to their doctors.”
Situation Analysis
In the 1950’s, cervical cancer was the leading cause of deaths from cancer among women. Although advancements in screening and pap tests have helped 70% of women who would have died from cervical cancer, approximately 10,000 women in the US are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and approximately 3,500 women die from it. Cervical cancer is especially a problem in developing countries where about 200,000 women die each year. A virus called the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, is the cause for almost all cases of cervical cancer. The most common cancer causing types of the virus are 16 and 18 which is responsible for causing 70% of all cervical cancer. Both women and men become infected with HPV through sexual intercourse and sexual contact and may never know if they have it because there are no signs or symptoms of HPV. Most women will be exposed to HPV in their lifetime and in most cases the virus goes away by itself, but in some it can eventually turn into cervical cancer. Early detection and prevention of the HPV virus from turning cells in the cervix into cancer cells is the only way to prevent cervical cancer.
Merck &Co., Inc., a global research pharmaceutical company, developed the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine in 2006 called Gardasil. The vaccine prevents HPV types 16, 18 that relate to 70% of cervical cancer cases, and types 6 and 11 that cause genital warts. The vaccine was FDA approved on June 8, 2006 for woman ages 9 to 26. By November 2006 Merck announced its national print, television and online advertising for the Gardasil campaign. Along with Merck’s educational efforts about cervical cancer and HPV, the campaign called One Less encourages females who are eligible for the vaccine to start the three shot series and see a doctor regularly for screenings and check-ups. The one less campaign is designed to inform and empower girls and women to become “one less” person to develop cervical cancer. Merck is committed to the public awareness of HPV and education of the disease through the Tell Someone and Connection multi-lingual disease awareness programs to broaden the education of the HPV virus and its connection to cervical cancer. Merck also works towards making Gardasil available in developing countries where cervical cancer is a most important woman’s health issue killing about 200,000 women each year. Around the world there are at least 500,000 new cases that are diagnosed annually and 80% of them are in developing countries.
Merck made attempts in making the series of Gardasil shots mandatory for young women and there were considerations for these requirements in some states such as, Texas and Minnesota (Childs, 1). Mandates that Merck was attempting to instill in some states was rejected because it was thought, especially by parents, that since Gardasil is aimed at girls as young as nine years old, it would encourage promiscuity. Since HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, it could give young girls a wrong impression that they are protected from diseases if they are sexually active, which is not the image Merck wanted to give to young girls about Gardasil. In an article titled, “Political Intrigue in Merck's HPV Vaccine Push” from 2007, Mary Elizabeth Blake the senior director of public affairs for the Merck vaccine division, made a response to this through e mail. She stated, "We … do not want any misperception about Merck's role to distract from the ultimate goal of fighting cervical cancer, so Merck has re-evaluated its approach at the state level and we will not lobby for school requirements for Gardasil," (Childs, 1). Merck retracted its efforts in making mandatory vaccinations for young girls to go through in some states because it distracted from the original effort to educate women of various ages of the HPV virus and how it can form into cervical cancer. Merck realized that they may have pushed too hard too fast making mandates for the vaccine because the public needed time to realize that the vaccine worked before they can make it mandatory for young girls, and potentially hurt them. Though the vaccine is a positive effort for all girls to participate in, a new product such as this cannot be pushed onto them before they feel safe. Merck made a very good decision to pull away from its push to make the vaccine mandatory and recognizing that although they know the vaccine will help in reducing the number of deaths from cervical cancer, they needed the public to believe this on their own and continue their efforts in educating the public about HPV before they can issue mandates on the vaccine.
Research
In researching which types of the HPV virus the Gardasil vaccine would work to prevent, Merck ran a series of tests using their target audience. An article from 2007 titled, “HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS; Research from Merck & Company, Inc., Department of Health has provided new information about human papillomavirus”, stated that Merck’s study populations consisted of women from the United States, ages 16-23, having zero to five lifetime sexual partners, never having been pregnant, and never before have had an abnormal pap. test. These women underwent DNA tests every six months for a 48 month duration that tested HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18. After two clean swab samples that were negative to any types of HPV infections, the duration of swab samples were tested for exposure to the four types of HPV Gardasil prevents. In conclusion to the researchers study, the tests showed that HPV 16 and 18 durations were twice as much as HPV types 6 and 11. The statistic that HPV types 16 and 18 account for 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases was proved to be true here in the study because it showed up twice as much as the other two types of HPV viruses that was tested.
With studies conducted by Merck that compared women, ages 24 to 45, who have had the vaccine to prevent HPV types 16, 18.6, and 11 to women who were given placebos instead of the vaccine. Results showed that Gardasil prevented, “91 percent of cases of persistent infection, low-grade cervical abnormalities, and pre-cancers, and external genital lesions caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 compared with placebo in women aged 24 through 45” (Cancer Vaccines, 1756). This study in 2007 helped Merck provide information to present to the FDA for approval in expanding the Gardasil vaccine to women up to age 45. The results from these various tests indicate that women have potential to be infected with the HPV virus throughout their lifetime and the vaccine can help prevent these threats at various ages. Referenced in the same article titled, “CANCER VACCINES; New Data Presented on GARDASIL(R), Merck's Cervical Cancer Vaccine, in Women Through Age 45”, from 2007, is data from the International Multi-Center study, which is designed to examine Gardasil and involved more than 3,800 women in its study. It found that women who did not have any HPV infections remained that way throughout the series of vaccines and at the end of the third vaccine. It showed that there were 41 cases of infection in the placebo group and only 4 cases in the group who received the vaccine having a 91 percent reduction, and Gardasil also reduced abnormal Pap tests showing HPV types 16 and 18 by 94 percent. During these studies, the only undesirable experiences were those at the injection site consisting of, “erythema, pain, pruritus, swelling and warmth” (Cancer Vaccines, 1756), which were higher in the vaccine group than the placebo group.
Merck researched the vaccine before FDA approval in 2006 and continued to expand its research so the vaccine could be used to its full capability in many age groups from young girls to women. Currently, there has been some research done to expand the vaccine to men as well as women. Because the HPV virus is sexually transmitted, the vaccine given to men can further help to prevent the spread of the virus even before it is presented in women. An article titled, “Gardasil vaccine now offered to boys, young men”, states that by 2009 boys will have the option to also take Gardasil to further prevent cervical cancer. Arguments for the issue of the vaccine for boys are that not only will it help prevent cervical cancer, but will also prevent genital warts for boys. Some of the same arguments against issuing this vaccine for boys is the same issues for young girls. The same risk of increased promiscuity can be seen here, now boys will have the reassurance that they are safe from spreading genital warts and HPV to girls through sexual intercourse. It could make the desire to have safe sex more desirable at a younger age. Even though the use of condoms helps prevent other sexually transmitted disease, HPV can be transferred from skin to skin contact and condoms do not cover the entire genital area. If Merck would like to issue the vaccine eventually for boys, they will have to go through the same precautions as they did when issuing it to young girls and have a tactic that will talk to parents of boys as well who may be unfavorable in submitting their sons to a vaccine meant to prevent cervical cancer.
Planning
Before Gardasil was approved by the FDA in 2006, Merck had the “Tell Someone” campaign already in action. The “Tell Someone” campaign focused on giving information about HPV and cervical cancer to women and stressing the importance of passing this information on to other women. Merck was able to stress the dangers of this virus and the importance of finding a way to prevent this virus from spreading to others. It was a good introduction for the need of the Gardasil vaccine and an excellent way building up anticipating a cure for the virus that women have now already learned was an important and ongoing problem for young girls and women. The “Tell Someone” campaign focused more on informing mothers and having them tell their daughters about HPV and the dangers of it turning into cervical cancer. The types of commercials that showed mothers with their daughters were often shown after shows that reflected families or mother daughter relationships such as “Gilmore Girls”. Focusing on parents to tell their children about these dangers kept the campaign on an informational level and did not pertain to the vaccine yet. This type of planning allowed Merck to focus on developing the vaccine and getting it approved while parents learned of something that was a danger to their children while waiting for a breakthrough that will help them, beyond just the efforts of just having information about the disease.
When Gardasil became approved by the FDA in 2006, by November of that year Merck launched its “One Less” campaign. In an article titled, “The Gardasil HPV Vaccine: Not the Shot in the Arm Merck Hoped for” from the PR watch. Org website, Edelman Public Relations Company, the largest independently owned PR company with 46 offices and 50 affiliates around the world, implemented the “One Less” campaign. This campaign took off of the informational campaign ideas of the “Tell Someone” campaign, but now there was something that women could do about the risk of getting an HPV infection and that was to get a three series shot of the Gardasil vaccine. The “One Less” campaign urges girls to become one less statistic of cervical cancer by taking the precaution of having the Gardasil vaccine to become one less person to struggle through cervical cancer. The commercials from this campaign featured a variety of girls from skateboarders to dancers who wanted to become “One Less” cervical cancer victim. The commercials had some information about the HPV virus and how it can later lead to cervical cancer, and encouraged girls to find out more information by consulting their doctor.
Merck then followed some of the same tactics from the “Tell Someone” campaign when they slightly changed the “One Less” tactic to the “I Chose” campaign. This issued some images of mothers who have already implemented the vaccine to their daughters saying, “I chose to get my daughter vaccinated”, and also confessions from girls saying, “I chose to get vaccinated after my doctor told me Gardasil does more than help prevent cervical cancer." Merck’s advertising plan followed the path that women were taking while Gardasil had been a product for some time. It started with providing information, then when the vaccine was approved it showed women having the desire to become one less person to fight cervical cancer, then showed women who have already taken the vaccine why they chose and why mothers have chosen to help their daughters, and in the end showing women that they have the power to choose to take the vaccine. Also, as the “Tell Someone” campaign was shown after popular women television shows, Merck bought a 60 second slot for HPV advertising before the “Sex and the City” movie in theaters. Merck’s research showed, “76 percent of young women between the ages of 19 and 26 described advertising they saw before a movie as entertaining. But here's the clincher: The same young women said they pay more attention to ads on a movie screen than on television." (Siers, 1).
In the 2008 campaign year, the department of health appointed Consolidated PR to manage the public relations campaign to continue to raise awareness of HPV and the Central Office of Information (COI) managed the pitch. In a press release titled, “Department of Health appoints Consolidated to deliver HPV Vaccine PR”, it is said that this campaign will run from May 2008 till April 2009. Liz Fay, Board Director at Consolidated who will lead the agency team said in this article, "This is a vaccination of huge significance in the war against cancer as it will save lives today and for generations to come. It's not without its complexities and challenges though so our job is keep the communications consistent, clear and open. Working closely with the other marketing disciplines, the role for PR is to keep the momentum going to ensure that girls and their mums feel informed and compelled to opt in”.
The newest set of commercials on television at the moment is commercials that go back the awareness tactic of providing important information about the HPV virus. Merck has made a much more simple commercial series that features only words on a yellow screen stating an HPV fact, and then a Merck logo comes into the corner as hpv.com is shown under the fact. The same commercial, only with different facts shown, is currently being run on television. This approach urges watchers to find out more facts about HPV by logging onto the Website where all of the facts that are randomly shown on the commercials can be seen at once and then you have the options of searching how to protect yourself and get all of the HPV information. This breaks away from the “One Less” and the “Tell Someone” campaigns because it does not issue women or girls telling others about the vaccine, but just gives a small amount of information about HPV to intrigue people to inform themselves about the virus, cervical cancer, and the vaccine that can help prevent this infection.
Execution
Merck’s established its message through a variety of commercials and Web sites. The “Tell Someone” campaign’s main focus was to educate young women and their parents by giving them information on what HPV is and how it can change into cervical cancer. It encouraged its audience to protect the ones they love by telling them the potential dangers of being infected with an HPV virus. Their Web site is designed in this way featuring facts on HPV and surrounded with statements such as, “Tell someone…Tell your best friend, your sister, your daughter”, and “Help protect your future and the future of those you love. Ask your doctor about ways to help prevent HPV and its consequences”. In implementing a campaign focused on education the Gardasil target audience, and its intervening audiences, it enabled Merck to start the publicity needed to make the demand for the vaccine strong as soon as it was available for use.
The “One Less” campaign and the “I Chose” campaign both were geared directly to the Gardasil vaccine, and both are directed to the Gardasil Web site. The “One Less” commercials are some of the most recognized where they show a number of young women from different backgrounds becoming one less women to battle cervical cancer by taking the vaccine. The “I Chose” campaign spoke to the same group of women, but it took an angle of showing everyday mothers with their daughters and stating that they chose to get their daughter vaccinated followed by other young women saying they chose to be one less. Gardasil is shown on these spots as the only vaccine to battle cervical cancer, there is no information on the HPV virus like there was in the first informative method through the “Tell Someone” campaign.
The newest campaign through HPV.com gears women to learn more about HPV. Through the other campaigns women learned the facts about Gardasil and the types of HPV that it prevents. The HPV.com Web site gives 20 easy to remember and to the point facts about HPV and what it means for women. The new commercials show one fact at a time and encourage watchers to go to the Web site and learn more. For women who have not had the vaccine that has been advertised for two years, this gives them the knowledge of what HPV is, that it is a serious infection for women, and now there is something they can do about it. The execution of Web sites and commercials is specific to the campaigns target audience and its intervening audience, and it follows the path of information women should have about HPV, Gardasil and cervical cancer. It has been able to look at new angles through different commercials and target women that may not have taken the initiative to protect themselves from HPV and, potentially, cervical cancer.
Evaluation
There were many studies conducted, and there are still studies being done, but all have shown that Gardasil prevents HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18. It was impossible and unethical to allow women to develop cervical, vaginal or vulvar cancers just to prove that the vaccine helped to prevent them. In an article titled, “The Value of Gardasil”, a doctor responds to false facts about Gardasil that the National Post included in its article, “Is the HPV Vaccine worth It?” Dr. Francois Bertrand, M.D., is executive director, medical research, for Merck Frosst Canada issued the response and he described Gardasil in a favorable medical matter. He explained that through many studies, some including 3,000 girls and boys ages 9 to 15, which answered three questions about the vaccine: whether the vaccine was safe, whether it worked and whether it was efficacious. In immune response studies, the vaccine created a strong immune response to fight against the virus when it appeared in the subjects. In the effectiveness studies, women from ages 16 to 26 were studied because it would not have made sense to use subjects for a sexually transmitted disease if they were never in contact with the virus because of this reason. The results from these studies showed that Gardasil helped protect females from the four types of HPV that Gardasil targets. Dr. Bertrand explains the type of medical burdens that women have to go through even with abnormal pap tests, “But the real point is that deaths from cervical cancer are just the tip of the iceberg. What about the 325,000 abnormal Pap results and the women who undergo colposcopies and biopsies because of them? Or the 36,000 cases of genital warts causing 85,000 medical consultations across the country every year? Can anyone estimate the financial and psychological burden of all this? HPV types 6 and 11 cause 90% of genital warts. Results published in The New England Journal of Medicine show that Gardasil is 99% effective in preventing those cases.”
Gardasil studies have shown that the vaccine is almost guaranteed to help prevent HPV infections of the four types it targets in subjects who have never been exposed to HPV. Some studies say it is 100% effective in preventing cancerous and precancerous cases. However, studies still show that women who are already sexual active can still benefit from the vaccine. Even if sexually active women have been exposed to HPV, it is not likely they were exposed to all of the HPV types; therefore, Gardasil will still prevent the four HPV types from occurring.
There have also been studies resulting in significant changes in abnormal pap tests. Abnormal pap tests were reduced by 43% compared to women who did not receive the Gardasil vaccine. This reduction was in tests for pre-cancerous cell changes and there was also a 16% to 35% reduction in milder pre-malignant cell changes (News medical). This study also found that Gardasil reduced cervical biopsies by 42% compared to women without the vaccine.
In my evaluation of everything I have read on Gardasil and HPV, Merck has found their niche in developing the first vaccine to battle four types of HPV. Two of which are responsible for 70% of all cervical cancer cases. The way they advertised the product through Web sites and commercials gave women the information they needed, even before the vaccine was available, to understand that infections with HPV can occur without any signs or symptoms and can potentially lead to cervical cancer. Being the only vaccine to help prevent this problem makes them the leader in the battle against cervical cancer. This also makes Gardasil prone to medical scrutiny and has had many objections to its attempts in mandating the vaccine. Merck was able to handle these problems by stepping back with its push to make the vaccine for young girls mandatory. The vaccine needs to establish its importance among parents of young girls and the commercials took a step in focusing on mothers who have chosen to get their daughters vaccinated.
In looking into adverse effects of Gardasil, I found some cases, other than the side effects that are included as a warning with the vaccine which are pain, swelling, itching, and redness at the injection site, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and fainting. There have been 11 deaths reported in 2007 that were said to be related to the Gardasil vaccine. In further looking into these reports, there was no proof that these deaths had any direct relation to the vaccine. Overall, the vaccine is the only preventative method against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 and is working to expand the vaccine to help women up to the age of 45, and eventually will be extending the vaccine to men to further the attempts of lowering the number of cervical cancer cases.
Professional Interview
I was able to interview Dr. William Dickerman, my family physician who has been practicing medicine for 25 years. He has been giving the Gardasil vaccine for a little over a year now and recommends it highly. “I encourage my patients to get the vaccine. Cervical cancer is significant concern in women’s health and this is the only vaccine that prevents certain HPV’s.” When asked if any of his patients told him where they heard of Gardasil if it was not suggested by him, he said, “A lot of my younger patients said it was suggested by friends or family, and some of them already knew what HPV is and that Gardasil can help.”
Dr. Dickerman did acknowledge that there are some side effects to the vaccine serious ones can be avoided, “There are always some concerns when it comes to new medicines or vaccines, but there are certain criteria that doctors follow for each patient in checking their history and making sure there are no allergies to the substance in the vaccine.” In referencing side effects to the vaccine he also said, “I have only had one abnormal reaction to the vaccine and that was with your sister. On the first shot of the three shot series, about two minutes after the shot was given to her she fainted. It was not serious, as you know she woke a few minutes later and never had any reactions to the other two shots.” My younger sister did have a negative reaction to the first shot, but she has had a history of becoming fatigue and has fainted before when she needed a vaccine given to her.
Overall Dr. Dickerman felt that the messages given to women through commercials and on Web sites was positive. “As a doctor I highly recommend young women to get vaccinated, and I inform my patients about the risks of HPV infections. I think the efforts that Merck has put into educating women of Gardasil and what it does have been very effective and has made women want to help themselves by talking to their doctors.”
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The Tragedy at Virginia Tech: A Case Study
Introduction
The tragedy at Virginia Tech was a horrible incident that occurred eight years after the shooting at Columbine High School. The public relations personnel involved in this crisis had to not only disseminate all current information in a timely matter but also combat the rise of technology and the idea of the citizen journalist.
Research- Timeline
The tragedy at Virginia Tech first started to unravel at 7:15 a.m. Monday, April 16, 2007 when a 911 call was received reporting two victims, a male and female, had been shot inside of their dorm room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. It was first thought that the incident was caused by a lover’s quarrel, and the authorities started to follow-up leads at 7:30 a.m.
By 8:25 a.m. the Virginia Tech leadership team consisting of the university president, executive vice-president and provost assembled to determine how to notify the students. The Virginia Tech police department’s Chief W.R. Flinchum briefed the team on the current situation.
At 9:26 a.m. all faculty, staff and students were emailed of a homicide investigation that was underway on-campus and asked to report any suspicious activity. The Virginia Tech Emergency/ Weather line transmitted and broadcast a phone message at this time. Also, a press release was drafted and put on the university’s website.
However, at 9:45 a.m. another 911 call was reported of a shooting that was taking place in Norris Hall, a building home to the Engineering Sciences and Mechanics and many other programs. Within the next five minutes or so sixty people were shot. When the police arrived to the scene, all three main entrance doors were chained shut. By the time the police had reached the second floor, the gunman had taken his own life.
The university used the same means to notify the university’s community and started to notify local media in other ways. By 10:17 a.m., the university sent a third email notifying the cancellation of classes for the rest of the day and advised people to stay where they were located. A fourth email was sent out at 10:52 a.m. warning everyone on campus that a multiple shooting with multiple victims had occurred in Norris Hall, but the shooter was arrested. However, there may be a second shooter.
At this time, all campus entrances were locked to ensure no one could enter or exit a building without the police knowing. At 12:00 p.m. the two sides of campus were evacuated and told faculty and students to return to their homes. At 12:15 p.m. Virginia Tech’s President, Charles Steger, held a press conference confirming that at least twenty-one people were dead and at least twenty-eight injured. The death toll rose to twenty-two people around 1:00 p.m. By 12:42 p.m. Steger released everyone from the buildings on campus and set up a counselor center.
At 1:43 p.m. a news station confirmed that there were two separate shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. President Bush issued a statement later in the day giving his condolences to the victims and families of the incident.
The shooter’s identity was not discovered until hours later because his face was disheveled from the gunshot wound, and he was not carrying any identification on him. Also, his fingerprints did not initially have a match. At 9:06 p.m. police confirmed that Cho Seung-Hui was the killer for both shootings that had occurred that day. His named was not officially released until the following day at 9:15 a.m. Steger also announced Tuesday morning that classes would be cancelled for the rest of the week.
Research- Cho Seung-Hui
Cho was a South Korean who first moved to the United States when he was eight years old. At Virginia Tech, he was enrolled as an English major. However, when he was in middle school he was diagnosed and treated with severe anxiety disorder. He received therapy and was in special education classes until his junior year of high school. In 2005, he was accused of stalking two female students and at this point was declared mentally ill. One of his professors asked him to seek counseling due to his disturbing behaviors and writings in English class.
That evening, MSNBC received a package from Cho, which contained a “multimedia manifesto”. The package contained twelve photos, five pages with his passages, and nine video clips that justified and answered the question as to why he decided to follow through with the incident.
Objectives
Virginia Tech had a crisis on their hands and needed to effectively disseminate ongoing information about the situation to their students, faculty, staff and the community. The crisis management team decided it best to notify students and faculty via email. After first posting a news release on the university website, it was changed to a text-only format. This format allows more users to access the website more quickly.
The Inn at Virginia Tech was sanctioned as a place for parents to go to receive more information. There were also two separate counseling services one for students and the other for faculty or staff. A shuttle service ran between these three places and all residences.
A hotline was also created where people could find out information, provide any information on the case, and be directed to counseling services. The university also held press conferences throughout the days in order to inform the media of any new information. These press conferences were also posted online at podcasts.
Rise of Technology
Citizen Journalist
The technological advancements today have allowed anyone to become a journalist by either taking video and photos via a cell phone or creating a blog for people to find information. Both were used in the case of Virginia Tech. One student, who was in Norris Hall during the time of the shootings, took a video with his cell phone of the events that were taking place. He was able to showcase to the world the chaos and fear that was seen by the students trapped within the building. Another student created a blog entitled “The Lede”, which gave up-to-date information on the situation. Journalist from CNN and the Times used the information contained on the blog. A link to it was actually found on the homepage of the Times.
Blogs
Blogs also were a key component in the case. Almost every national, regional and local newspaper had their own blog detailing the events, giving current information, voicing their opinion about gun control, and acting as a forum for people to post their comments and concerns.
MSNBC was a major player in blogging, considering they were the news company to receive Cho’s multimedia manifest. The organization posted almost half of the all the mediums they received from it. They also tried to highlight the positives, by discussing the increased activity that the campus gyms saw on the Virginia Tech campus. A lot of students found working out as a way to handle their stress.
The campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times, set up a blog on their website, which gave up to minute updates. Their website saw a lot of traffic as an overflow from the Virginia Tech homepage.
Another online site titled “CollegeWebEditor” set up blogs as a way to access the podcasts by President Steger. They also had a post dealing with crisis communication. They talked about how important it is for websites to have text-only format when there is an increased amount of traffic. They also talked about how the increase in technology could be used as an advantage, by using blogging and Facebook as a way to access information.
Criticisms
After the events began to unfold, the university saw a lot of criticism from the media on their response to the incident. The major criticism was that the university needed to improve their security, enhance their campus-wide alert system and better monitor troubled students. Newspapers questioned why the university did not lock down the campus right after the first shootings occurred.
The university thought it was not feasible to shut down the campus at that time in the morning, since most students, faculty and staff were commuters and would just be arriving to campus. There would be no main way to stop students from entering or exiting such a large campus. It would be like trying to shut down a small town.
Most people also believed that President Steger should resign from his position. They thought this tragedy could have been avoided had the staff taken measures to help Cho’s mental instability and ensure the safety of the rest of their students. However, this issue deals more with how involved universities should be with the private lives of their students.
Most critics did, however, comment that the action taken by the police was well executed. The police are well trained in active shooter response, and so they responded quickly to the first shootings. They had no reason to believe that the shooter would continue due to the type of homicide they arrived to in the morning.
Evaluation
Virginia Tech was applauded for their calm demeanor after the incident occurred. The president and public relations team worked side by side with experts from Columbine and 9/11 to ensure they took every necessary step.
After having a panel review every aspect of the incident, Virginia Tech took into consideration how they should better improve their methods of communication. They paired up with 3N National Notification Network out of California for a four-year contract worth two hundred thousand dollars. 3N is implementing a communication system, which sends messages to cell phones, emails and instant messengers. Students have a choice of which method they would like to be contacted, and then confirm they received the message.
They tested this out in early October and more than seven hundred people said they did not receive a message, so they are still working out the glitches. However, most students received the message within thirty minutes after it was sent. On April 16th, the university used email alerts, announcements on the website, voicemail blasts, a siren and loudspeaker.
The university started conducting mass casualty training exercises for all faculty, staff, some students and local emergency responders. They hope people will be better prepared for another incident that involves multiple people. They have also looked into training professors on mental health issues.
Public Relations Professional Opinion
I interviewed Jonathan Clay, Jack Morton Worldwide Project Manager, for his public relations opinion of how Virginia Tech handled the situation. He does integrative marketing for corporations such as NBC, Microsoft and Cotton. He stated that the most important time was the two hours in between the two shootings, where the university “went into crisis management rather than the safety of their school. They should have been more concerned with the safety of their school and ready for a response to any what if questions.”
He also believes that possibly the university “was too worried about the ‘spin’ the media might take on the initial shootings, and maybe was why they took so long to respond.” He said, “This is an example, I think, of being too concerned with image and ‘spin.’ and letting that get in the way of good judgment and priorities. If they would have put their reputations aside, and considered the students first, it can be argued that the second (bigger) wave of killings could have never happened”. He believes that “PR is good only if it is predicted upon good judgment.”
Other Cases
Unfortunately, there is a long history of school shootings and the Virginia Tech massacre was not the first but deadliest case. This incident happened eight years after the shooting at Columbine High School. This was, at the time, the worst case of school shootings. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris shot thirty-five students and one teacher before committing suicide. In the end, twelve students and one teacher died from the shootings that occurred on April 20, 1999.
There was intensive media coverage right away because major news crews were awaiting developments in the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Davis became the spokesperson for the incident. He gave briefings every hour the first two days after the incident. The media set up a camp next to the school, from which they could broadcast daily.
The worst university-wide shooting happened August 1, 1966 at the University of Texas in Austin. Charles Whitman opened fired from the observation deck of the school’s tower killing sixteen people and injuring thirty-one people. Earlier in the day, he stabbed his wife and killed this mother to spare them from being embarrassed by the actions he was planning on taking later. That day the university had major problems with communications because it was an era where people did not have two-way radios or cell phones. The deck is now open for tours and has a gold plaque to commemorate the victims that fell that day.
My Opinion
Every university and college in the United States and across the world needs to create a crisis management plan for every worst-case scenario one can possibly think would occur. The tragedy at Virginia Tech was a horrible incident, which unfortunately was not the first school shooting in the United States. I would have to agree with Clay when he thought the public relations team waited too long and should have taken the safety first approach to the incident.
No one knows whether or not if the campus had been shut down or classes cancelled if that would have stopped or reduced the number of students that died that day. I thought that after the second shooting occurred the public relations team did an excellent job with disseminating messages to the media, students, faculty, staff and families. They created an organized system on campus, which helped decrease the already chaotic atmosphere. I also thought they handled the increased amount of technology used sufficiently.
I think that it sadly took an incident like this in order for universities and colleges to improve their communication system. Virginia Tech has spent a lot of money to better improve their methods to notify students. They have also taken it one step further in training their community on how to handle a mass situation like this one. I hope that other universities begin to follow this lead.
I also disagree with critics who think President Steger should resign. I thought he handled the situation as best as he could and kept a calm demeanor under all the pressure. I think he is taking proper measures to ensure the safety of his students from this point on. I unfortunately believe that it took a tragedy like this one to force university officials to be better prepared for a situation like this and to not take lightly any warning signs.
References
AP/School Violence Resource Center. “Fatal Shootings at Colleges and Schools.” 16 Apr. 2007 Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1611004,00.html
“Archive News and Notices.” We Remember. Apr. 2007 Virginia Tech. 8 Oct. 2007 http://www.vt.edu/remember/archive/
Cloud, John. “Viewpoint: Va. Tech’s President Should Resign.” 19 Apr. 2007 Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1612492,00.html
Esposito, Greg. “Some Glitches Appear in Test of Tech Alerts.” 11 Oct. 2007 The Roanoke Times. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/vtcampus/wb/135327
Esposito, Greg. “Tech Finding Way Forward, President Says.” 17 June 2007 The Roanoke Times 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-121048
Esposito, Greg and Angela Manese- Lee. “Tech Studies Ways to Apply Suggestions.” 24 Sept. 2007 The Roanoke Times. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/vtinvestigation/wb/133250
Jenkins, Chris L. “Va. Tech Review Recommends Steps to Avert Another Tragedy.” 23 Aug. 2007 The Washington Post. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082201652_pf.html
“Massacre at Virginia Tech.” 2007 CNN Special Report. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/virginiatech.shootings/
“Ongoing Support Resources.” We Remember. 1 June 2007 Virginia Tech. 8 Oct. 2007 http://www.vt.edu/remember/support_resources.php
“Tech’s Response Questioned.” 17 Apr. 2007 The Roanoke Times. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/vtshootingaccount/wb/113341
Rawe, Julie. “Can We Make Campuses Safer?” 16 Apr. 2007. Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1611164,00.html
Rawe, Julie. “What Can Schools Do?” 19 Apr. 2007 Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1612392.html
Sluss, Matt and Matt Chittum. “Panel: Report Criticizes Virginia Tech Officials.” 30 Aug. 2007 The Roanoke Times 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/129962
Tedford, Deborah. “Campus Stirs Memories of Austin Massacre.” 16 Apr. 2007 NPR. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9619382
“The Columbine High School Shootings.” Jefferson County, Colorado Sheriff. CNN Special. 9 Oct. 2007 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/frameset.exclude.html
“The Media Response.” Jefferson County, Colorado Sheriff. CNN Special. 9 Oct. 2007 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/frameset.exclude.html
“We Remember.” 2007 Virginia Tech. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.vt.edu/remember/
Zach, Paul. “Murder, they Googled.” 22 Apr. 2007 The Strait Times. Lexis-Nexus Academic 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T2328287704&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=401&resultsUrlKey=29_T2328695324&cisb=22_T2328695323&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=144965&docNo=424
The tragedy at Virginia Tech was a horrible incident that occurred eight years after the shooting at Columbine High School. The public relations personnel involved in this crisis had to not only disseminate all current information in a timely matter but also combat the rise of technology and the idea of the citizen journalist.
Research- Timeline
The tragedy at Virginia Tech first started to unravel at 7:15 a.m. Monday, April 16, 2007 when a 911 call was received reporting two victims, a male and female, had been shot inside of their dorm room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. It was first thought that the incident was caused by a lover’s quarrel, and the authorities started to follow-up leads at 7:30 a.m.
By 8:25 a.m. the Virginia Tech leadership team consisting of the university president, executive vice-president and provost assembled to determine how to notify the students. The Virginia Tech police department’s Chief W.R. Flinchum briefed the team on the current situation.
At 9:26 a.m. all faculty, staff and students were emailed of a homicide investigation that was underway on-campus and asked to report any suspicious activity. The Virginia Tech Emergency/ Weather line transmitted and broadcast a phone message at this time. Also, a press release was drafted and put on the university’s website.
However, at 9:45 a.m. another 911 call was reported of a shooting that was taking place in Norris Hall, a building home to the Engineering Sciences and Mechanics and many other programs. Within the next five minutes or so sixty people were shot. When the police arrived to the scene, all three main entrance doors were chained shut. By the time the police had reached the second floor, the gunman had taken his own life.
The university used the same means to notify the university’s community and started to notify local media in other ways. By 10:17 a.m., the university sent a third email notifying the cancellation of classes for the rest of the day and advised people to stay where they were located. A fourth email was sent out at 10:52 a.m. warning everyone on campus that a multiple shooting with multiple victims had occurred in Norris Hall, but the shooter was arrested. However, there may be a second shooter.
At this time, all campus entrances were locked to ensure no one could enter or exit a building without the police knowing. At 12:00 p.m. the two sides of campus were evacuated and told faculty and students to return to their homes. At 12:15 p.m. Virginia Tech’s President, Charles Steger, held a press conference confirming that at least twenty-one people were dead and at least twenty-eight injured. The death toll rose to twenty-two people around 1:00 p.m. By 12:42 p.m. Steger released everyone from the buildings on campus and set up a counselor center.
At 1:43 p.m. a news station confirmed that there were two separate shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. President Bush issued a statement later in the day giving his condolences to the victims and families of the incident.
The shooter’s identity was not discovered until hours later because his face was disheveled from the gunshot wound, and he was not carrying any identification on him. Also, his fingerprints did not initially have a match. At 9:06 p.m. police confirmed that Cho Seung-Hui was the killer for both shootings that had occurred that day. His named was not officially released until the following day at 9:15 a.m. Steger also announced Tuesday morning that classes would be cancelled for the rest of the week.
Research- Cho Seung-Hui
Cho was a South Korean who first moved to the United States when he was eight years old. At Virginia Tech, he was enrolled as an English major. However, when he was in middle school he was diagnosed and treated with severe anxiety disorder. He received therapy and was in special education classes until his junior year of high school. In 2005, he was accused of stalking two female students and at this point was declared mentally ill. One of his professors asked him to seek counseling due to his disturbing behaviors and writings in English class.
That evening, MSNBC received a package from Cho, which contained a “multimedia manifesto”. The package contained twelve photos, five pages with his passages, and nine video clips that justified and answered the question as to why he decided to follow through with the incident.
Objectives
Virginia Tech had a crisis on their hands and needed to effectively disseminate ongoing information about the situation to their students, faculty, staff and the community. The crisis management team decided it best to notify students and faculty via email. After first posting a news release on the university website, it was changed to a text-only format. This format allows more users to access the website more quickly.
The Inn at Virginia Tech was sanctioned as a place for parents to go to receive more information. There were also two separate counseling services one for students and the other for faculty or staff. A shuttle service ran between these three places and all residences.
A hotline was also created where people could find out information, provide any information on the case, and be directed to counseling services. The university also held press conferences throughout the days in order to inform the media of any new information. These press conferences were also posted online at podcasts.
Rise of Technology
Citizen Journalist
The technological advancements today have allowed anyone to become a journalist by either taking video and photos via a cell phone or creating a blog for people to find information. Both were used in the case of Virginia Tech. One student, who was in Norris Hall during the time of the shootings, took a video with his cell phone of the events that were taking place. He was able to showcase to the world the chaos and fear that was seen by the students trapped within the building. Another student created a blog entitled “The Lede”, which gave up-to-date information on the situation. Journalist from CNN and the Times used the information contained on the blog. A link to it was actually found on the homepage of the Times.
Blogs
Blogs also were a key component in the case. Almost every national, regional and local newspaper had their own blog detailing the events, giving current information, voicing their opinion about gun control, and acting as a forum for people to post their comments and concerns.
MSNBC was a major player in blogging, considering they were the news company to receive Cho’s multimedia manifest. The organization posted almost half of the all the mediums they received from it. They also tried to highlight the positives, by discussing the increased activity that the campus gyms saw on the Virginia Tech campus. A lot of students found working out as a way to handle their stress.
The campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times, set up a blog on their website, which gave up to minute updates. Their website saw a lot of traffic as an overflow from the Virginia Tech homepage.
Another online site titled “CollegeWebEditor” set up blogs as a way to access the podcasts by President Steger. They also had a post dealing with crisis communication. They talked about how important it is for websites to have text-only format when there is an increased amount of traffic. They also talked about how the increase in technology could be used as an advantage, by using blogging and Facebook as a way to access information.
Criticisms
After the events began to unfold, the university saw a lot of criticism from the media on their response to the incident. The major criticism was that the university needed to improve their security, enhance their campus-wide alert system and better monitor troubled students. Newspapers questioned why the university did not lock down the campus right after the first shootings occurred.
The university thought it was not feasible to shut down the campus at that time in the morning, since most students, faculty and staff were commuters and would just be arriving to campus. There would be no main way to stop students from entering or exiting such a large campus. It would be like trying to shut down a small town.
Most people also believed that President Steger should resign from his position. They thought this tragedy could have been avoided had the staff taken measures to help Cho’s mental instability and ensure the safety of the rest of their students. However, this issue deals more with how involved universities should be with the private lives of their students.
Most critics did, however, comment that the action taken by the police was well executed. The police are well trained in active shooter response, and so they responded quickly to the first shootings. They had no reason to believe that the shooter would continue due to the type of homicide they arrived to in the morning.
Evaluation
Virginia Tech was applauded for their calm demeanor after the incident occurred. The president and public relations team worked side by side with experts from Columbine and 9/11 to ensure they took every necessary step.
After having a panel review every aspect of the incident, Virginia Tech took into consideration how they should better improve their methods of communication. They paired up with 3N National Notification Network out of California for a four-year contract worth two hundred thousand dollars. 3N is implementing a communication system, which sends messages to cell phones, emails and instant messengers. Students have a choice of which method they would like to be contacted, and then confirm they received the message.
They tested this out in early October and more than seven hundred people said they did not receive a message, so they are still working out the glitches. However, most students received the message within thirty minutes after it was sent. On April 16th, the university used email alerts, announcements on the website, voicemail blasts, a siren and loudspeaker.
The university started conducting mass casualty training exercises for all faculty, staff, some students and local emergency responders. They hope people will be better prepared for another incident that involves multiple people. They have also looked into training professors on mental health issues.
Public Relations Professional Opinion
I interviewed Jonathan Clay, Jack Morton Worldwide Project Manager, for his public relations opinion of how Virginia Tech handled the situation. He does integrative marketing for corporations such as NBC, Microsoft and Cotton. He stated that the most important time was the two hours in between the two shootings, where the university “went into crisis management rather than the safety of their school. They should have been more concerned with the safety of their school and ready for a response to any what if questions.”
He also believes that possibly the university “was too worried about the ‘spin’ the media might take on the initial shootings, and maybe was why they took so long to respond.” He said, “This is an example, I think, of being too concerned with image and ‘spin.’ and letting that get in the way of good judgment and priorities. If they would have put their reputations aside, and considered the students first, it can be argued that the second (bigger) wave of killings could have never happened”. He believes that “PR is good only if it is predicted upon good judgment.”
Other Cases
Unfortunately, there is a long history of school shootings and the Virginia Tech massacre was not the first but deadliest case. This incident happened eight years after the shooting at Columbine High School. This was, at the time, the worst case of school shootings. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris shot thirty-five students and one teacher before committing suicide. In the end, twelve students and one teacher died from the shootings that occurred on April 20, 1999.
There was intensive media coverage right away because major news crews were awaiting developments in the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Davis became the spokesperson for the incident. He gave briefings every hour the first two days after the incident. The media set up a camp next to the school, from which they could broadcast daily.
The worst university-wide shooting happened August 1, 1966 at the University of Texas in Austin. Charles Whitman opened fired from the observation deck of the school’s tower killing sixteen people and injuring thirty-one people. Earlier in the day, he stabbed his wife and killed this mother to spare them from being embarrassed by the actions he was planning on taking later. That day the university had major problems with communications because it was an era where people did not have two-way radios or cell phones. The deck is now open for tours and has a gold plaque to commemorate the victims that fell that day.
My Opinion
Every university and college in the United States and across the world needs to create a crisis management plan for every worst-case scenario one can possibly think would occur. The tragedy at Virginia Tech was a horrible incident, which unfortunately was not the first school shooting in the United States. I would have to agree with Clay when he thought the public relations team waited too long and should have taken the safety first approach to the incident.
No one knows whether or not if the campus had been shut down or classes cancelled if that would have stopped or reduced the number of students that died that day. I thought that after the second shooting occurred the public relations team did an excellent job with disseminating messages to the media, students, faculty, staff and families. They created an organized system on campus, which helped decrease the already chaotic atmosphere. I also thought they handled the increased amount of technology used sufficiently.
I think that it sadly took an incident like this in order for universities and colleges to improve their communication system. Virginia Tech has spent a lot of money to better improve their methods to notify students. They have also taken it one step further in training their community on how to handle a mass situation like this one. I hope that other universities begin to follow this lead.
I also disagree with critics who think President Steger should resign. I thought he handled the situation as best as he could and kept a calm demeanor under all the pressure. I think he is taking proper measures to ensure the safety of his students from this point on. I unfortunately believe that it took a tragedy like this one to force university officials to be better prepared for a situation like this and to not take lightly any warning signs.
References
AP/School Violence Resource Center. “Fatal Shootings at Colleges and Schools.” 16 Apr. 2007 Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1611004,00.html
“Archive News and Notices.” We Remember. Apr. 2007 Virginia Tech. 8 Oct. 2007 http://www.vt.edu/remember/archive/
Cloud, John. “Viewpoint: Va. Tech’s President Should Resign.” 19 Apr. 2007 Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1612492,00.html
Esposito, Greg. “Some Glitches Appear in Test of Tech Alerts.” 11 Oct. 2007 The Roanoke Times. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/vtcampus/wb/135327
Esposito, Greg. “Tech Finding Way Forward, President Says.” 17 June 2007 The Roanoke Times 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-121048
Esposito, Greg and Angela Manese- Lee. “Tech Studies Ways to Apply Suggestions.” 24 Sept. 2007 The Roanoke Times. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/vtinvestigation/wb/133250
Jenkins, Chris L. “Va. Tech Review Recommends Steps to Avert Another Tragedy.” 23 Aug. 2007 The Washington Post. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082201652_pf.html
“Massacre at Virginia Tech.” 2007 CNN Special Report. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/virginiatech.shootings/
“Ongoing Support Resources.” We Remember. 1 June 2007 Virginia Tech. 8 Oct. 2007 http://www.vt.edu/remember/support_resources.php
“Tech’s Response Questioned.” 17 Apr. 2007 The Roanoke Times. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/vtshootingaccount/wb/113341
Rawe, Julie. “Can We Make Campuses Safer?” 16 Apr. 2007. Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1611164,00.html
Rawe, Julie. “What Can Schools Do?” 19 Apr. 2007 Time. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1612392.html
Sluss, Matt and Matt Chittum. “Panel: Report Criticizes Virginia Tech Officials.” 30 Aug. 2007 The Roanoke Times 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/129962
Tedford, Deborah. “Campus Stirs Memories of Austin Massacre.” 16 Apr. 2007 NPR. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9619382
“The Columbine High School Shootings.” Jefferson County, Colorado Sheriff. CNN Special. 9 Oct. 2007 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/frameset.exclude.html
“The Media Response.” Jefferson County, Colorado Sheriff. CNN Special. 9 Oct. 2007 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/frameset.exclude.html
“We Remember.” 2007 Virginia Tech. 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.vt.edu/remember/
Zach, Paul. “Murder, they Googled.” 22 Apr. 2007 The Strait Times. Lexis-Nexus Academic 18 Oct. 2007 http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T2328287704&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=401&resultsUrlKey=29_T2328695324&cisb=22_T2328695323&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=144965&docNo=424
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Abercrombie & Fitch Discrimination Case Study
Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the leading clothing companies in the world. They manufacture and sell apparel that target the 18-24 year old demographic who represent the “All-American Look.” Many people argue about the definition of what is “All-American,” since the United States continues to evolve and include many different cultures and races. Abercrombie & Fitch has been successful for over 100 years, but recently has come under constant scrutiny about its hiring practices.
This case study examines Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch, the largest discrimination lawsuit filed against the company in all of its years of existence. What did the company do to change its policies? Did they change their definition of “All-American?” Do they still enforce the new diversity policies in their stores today?
Abercrombie & Fitch continues to operate and successfully sell their apparel in the United States and around the world. This case study investigates the changes that have been made inside the company, as well as changes to their marketing, advertising, and hiring strategies.
Situation Overview
In June 2003, Eduardo Gonzalez, along with several other African American, Hispanic, and Asian former Abercrombie & Fitch employees, filed a class action lawsuit against the company for racial discrimination. The former “brand representatives” felt that the company assigned them specific tasks and areas to work in based on their ethnicity.
The lawsuit, Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch was originally filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in June 2003 by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann, & Bernstein, LLP. The suit was consolidated with other cases charging employment discrimination against women and minorities filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the law firm of Minami, Lew, & Tamaki, LLP., and the law firm of Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C.
Even with overwhelming evidence being present and several employees coming forward to attest to these allegations, Abercrombie & Fitch denied that they were discriminatory in any way. There were several testimonies and stories from former employees that clearly depicted prejudiced practices by the company.
At an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Costa Mesa, California, one former employee came forward with her experience. Jennifer Lu, a brand representative at the Crystal Court Mall location for over three years, worked at Abercrombie & Fitch while she was a student at the University of California, Irvine.
While at work one day, a corporate executive came for a store visit. While looking around the store, he pointed to a poster of a white, shirtless male and told the staff: “This is the ‘A&F’ look – you need to make your store look more like this.” A little less than a month later, Lu and five other Asian American sales associates were terminated. Several African American employees who also worked at the Costa Mesa store were transferred to the stock room in the back of the store – out of customer view.
“I was very distressed after I was terminated for being an Asian American woman,” Jennifer Lu stated.
Her story was just one of many that came out to further prove that Abercrombie & Fitch practiced discriminatory practices in the workplace.
Eduardo Gonzalez
Eduardo Gonzalez was the lead plaintiff in the case. A senior at Stanford University from Hayward, California, Gonzalez applied at for a job at the Santa Clara store. He claimed that when he filled out his application, managers urged him to apply for the overnight stocking crew. When he went to the store for his group interview with 13 other applicants, he noticed that the manager favored the two white candidates.
“I remember how discouraged I felt when I applied for a job at the Santa Clara store and the manager suggested that I work in the stock room or on the late night crew in a non-sales position,” Eduardo Gonzalez told reporters. “I felt it was because I was a Latino – but there was no one I could report this to at the time.”
Anthony Ocampo
Anthony Ocamp was a recent Stanford graduate when he decided to apply for a job at a southern California store. When he went to the location and asked for an application, he was told my management that he could not be hired because there were already “too many Filipinos” working there.
“It is important that Abercrombie seek out employees of color and provide them with training and opportunities for promotion,” Ocampo stated in an interview.
Carla Grubb
Carla Grubb was an African American student at California State Bakersfield, worked at an Abercrombie & Fitch store at the Bakersfield Valley Plaza Mall. After working there for a short time, she began to get assigned cleaning and other menial jobs. She was fired soon after.
“I felt demoralized being the only African-American employee and being specifically assigned to dust the store, wash the windows, and clean the floors,” Grubb told reporters. “I was always doing cleaning – they said I was a good window washer. I should have received the same treatment as everybody else. It made me feel bad. No one should be judged by the color of their skin.”
Company Overview
Abercrombie & Co. was founded by David Abercrombie on June 4, 1892. In 1900, Ezra Fitch joined the company and it then became known as Abercrombie & Fitch. Since the very beginning, the two did not see eye to eye on the direction that they wanted to take the company. Abercrombie wanted to sell outdoors gear and apparel, while Fitch wanted to sell more mainstream clothing. After years of feuding, Abercrombie left the company in 1907.
Despite his departure, the company continued to grow without Abercrombie. Fitch still kept the outdoor feel of the company – a campfire was burning in one corner of the store. He also sold hunting, fishing, and camping gear, but also sold clothing for the average person.
In 1909, Abercrombie & Fitch started a mail-order catalog. The 456 page catalog was mailed out to 50,000 customers, and included many of the same items that were sold in the store. In addition to merchandise, the catalog included articles and advice columns. Although the cost of the catalog almost caused the company to claim bankruptcy, it was an effective marketing tool and increased their sales.
The company kept expanding and opening up stores in a few different locations. A flagship store was opened in 1917 on Madison Avenue in New York. At the time, this was their largest store. In the basement there was a shooting range, on the mezzanine there were items for skiing, archery, and lawn games. The second through the fifth floors were reserved for clothing that was suitable for any climate or terrain. On the sixth floor, there was a picture gallery and a bookstore that was mainly about sporting themes, a watch repair area and a golf school. There was a professional on hand to assist customers with any questions that they had about a particular sport. The seventh floor included a gun room, stuffed game heads, and several hundred shot guns and rifles. The eighth floor was all about fishing, camping, and boating.
Ezra Fitch retired from the company in 1929. Even with his departure and under new ownership, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to expand. It gained a reputation as the “Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World.”
Company Overview (continued)
Abercrombie & Fitch began opening stores in shopping malls across the country. These included malls in Chicago, San Francisco, and New Jersey. Although sales remained constant for several years, in the 1960s they saw a decline. In 1977, Abercrombie & Fitch claimed bankruptcy. This coincidentally occurred the same year that modern competitor American Eagle began their business.
Even though they were suffering financially, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to operate for the next several years. In 1988, clothing giant The Limited Inc. acquired the distressed company. They re-launched Abercrombie & Fitch with a new look and sales strategy.
Stores began to be opened and operated in upscale malls across the United States. The new target demographic was specifically 18-24 year old college students. Their new apparel was “upscale” and “preppy” and they described their image as “sexy, classy, casual, and All-American.”
With its newfound success, Abercrombie & Fitch expanded to target other audiences. In 1998, abercrombie kids opened. This store targeted young kids. In 2000, Hollister Co. opened its doors. This brand targeted younger high school students ages 14-18. Prices at Hollister were also about 30% less than at Abercrombie & Fitch. Most recently, in 2004, a fourth brand called Rhuel No. 925 was launched to target the older, post college graduate audience ages 24 and up. Prices at Rhuel No. 925 were significantly higher than those at Abercrombie & Fitch.
Other Controversy
In recent years, Abercrombie & Fitch has faced several controversial lawsuits and boycotts because of the content and style of their merchandise.
Uniform Lawsuit
In 2002, several Abercrombie & Fitch employees complained and filed a lawsuit stating that they were forced to buy and wear the company’s clothing when at work. In a settlement, Abercrombie & Fitch agreed to pay $2.2 million to 11,000 workers employed from January 1, 1999 to February 15, 2002.
Each employee was awarded $200 to $490. This settlement was the first of its kind, and today, workers at any Abercrombie & Fitch run store is only required to wear clothing that reflects the look of the company.
Asian Boycott
In 2002, Asian Americans refused to buy clothing at Abercrombie & Fitch because of a controversial line of t-shirts. Earlier that year, the clothing company printed t-shirts that had, what some claimed, racist slogans. One shirt in particular had a cartoon of two Asian men and the words “Wong Brothers Laundry Service. Two Wongs Can Make It White.”
That is just one example of many controversial Asian t-shirts. Abercrombie & Fitch sales suffered because Asian Americans boycotted the store. The t-shirts were eventually pulled off the shelves.
West Virginia Controversy
In 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch began selling a t-shirt with the slogan, “Its All Relative in West Virginia.” Shortly after the release, Governor Bob Wise sent a letter to the company asking them to remove the shirt from their stores.
“The shirt depicts an unfounded, negative stereotype of the state,” Governor Wise stated. Abercrombie pulled the shirts from the shelves.
Girl-Cott
In 2005, the Women & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania protested Abercrombie & Fitch after they started selling t-shirts with the slogan, “Who Needs Brains When You Have These?” The slogan referred to breasts. Another controversial slogan that appeared on t-shirts said, “I Had a Nightmare I Was a Brunette.”
Although Abercrombie & Fitch claimed that the shirts were meant to be humorous, many women all over the country were offended. They reached an agreement with the group and stopped selling several of the t-shirts in question.
Advertisements and Commercials
Abercrombie & Fitch has been under constant scrutiny over the sexuality in their advertising and marketing campaigns. More often than not, commercials and advertisements for the clothing company feature scantily clad young men and women in controversial positions.
A&F Quarterly, the company’s magazine that is distributed 4 times a year, received the majority of the backlash. When paging through the publication, it is evident that sexuality overpowers the images.
Not only did Abercrombie & Fitch face controversy over the sexuality of their ad campaigns, but the models featured were predominately white. This sparked debate and prompted investigation of racial discrimination within the company.
The summer 2003 A&F quarterly features 67 models, all of whom are white. There is one woman pictured whose features are racially ambiguous. The back-to-school version, which was released after the Gonzalez v. Abercrombie lawsuit, featured about 100 models, and all but four appeared to be white. There is one exception, where a black coupled is pictured at the window of an old house. They are outside looking in. Some saw this as a metaphor, for the way the company treated minorities.
Abercrombie & Fitch’s only defense was that they used models that they felt reflected the clothing company’s “All-American” image. Law officials and employees did not agree. Many people felt that it was unfair to define what “All-American” is, and demanded that more multicultural models be featured in advertising and marketing materials.
Objectives
After Abercrombie & Fitch settled the Gonzalez v. Abercrombie lawsuit, they set several objectives to meet that would change the way they hire their employees, advertise, and market their brand. Since the suit was filed, the public developed a negative opinion about the company. Abercrombie & Fitch would strive to meet the objectives set so that the public would regain their trust and positive connection with the brand.
Change Marketing Direction
Abercrombie & Fitch decided to change their marketing and advertising tactics. When hiring models for their campaigns, they will keep an open mind more than ever before.
“This agreement promises to transform this company, whose distinctiveness will no longer stem from an all-white image and workforce,” stated Thomas A. Saenz, vice president of litigation of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
Change Hiring Practices
Abercrombie & Fitch decided to change the way that they hire new employees. In the past, managers targeted fraternities and sororities for new brand representatives. Now, the company will be open to hire people from all cultures and races and not narrow down new hires only to a certain population.
“Abercrombie had a back-of-the-bus mentality,” said Kimberley West-Faulcon of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. “Now instead of hiring them in the back of the store, they will have diversity recruiters. It sends a message to young people that we are moving past this kind of thing.”
Tactics and Responses
Abercrombie & Fitch responded to the Gonzalez lawsuit in a number of ways. They set objectives and goals for the company to reach, and went about reaching the goals in a very effective, structured manner. The first thing that they did was settle the class action lawsuit that was brought against them for discrimination.
Lawsuit Settled
Abercrombie & Fitch settled the Gonzalez lawsuit and agreed to pay $40 million to Latino, African American, women and Asian American past and present employees who felt discriminated against. A San Francisco judge approved the class action settlement for the company to pay the millions to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs.
In addition to the $40 million dollar payout, Abercrombie & Fitch also agreed to pay an additional $10 million to cover the plaintiffs’ court and legal fees.
Consent Decree
The class action lawsuit settlement also required Abercrombie & Fitch to follow a very detailed 70 page consent decree. The document set rules and goals for the company to make a positive change in the way its image is perceived. The decree sets specific goals and changes in the way that Abercrombie & Fitch uses marketing, advertising, and the way they hire and promote their employees.
Line 12, Page 15 of the decree states:
“Abercrombie is hereby enjoined from enacting, maintaining, or implementing any policy or engaging in any practice or procedure that discriminates against African Americans, Asian Americans, or Latinos on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin.”
The general equitable provisions are as follows:
2. Abercrombie is hereby enjoined from enacting, maintaining or implementing any policy or engaging in any practice or procedure that discriminates against women on the basis of gender.
3. Abercrombie is hereby enjoined from enacting, maintaining or
implementing any policy or engaging in any practice, conduct or procedure that retaliates or has the purpose of retaliating against any future, current or former employee or applicant of Abercrombie because he or she opposed discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or gender; filed a charge of discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or gender; testified, furnished information or participated in any manner in any investigation, proceeding, or hearing in connection with any charge or complaint of discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or gender; testified, furnished information or participated in any manner in connection with the monitoring or implementation of this Decree; or sought and/or received any monetary and/or non- monetary relief pursuant to this Consent Decree.
4. Abercrombie will implement or maintain non-discrimination and nonharassment policies and an internal complaint procedure designed to assure equal employment opportunity.
5. Abercrombie will make available to Minority and female associates and
applicants the same employment opportunities and terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, job assignments, and managerial promotions, as Abercrombie affords similarly-situated white male employees.
Recruiting Changes
After the settlement, Abercrombie & Fitch had to change the way that they go about recruiting and hiring their prospective employees. The company is no longer allowed to target fraternities and sororities, two places where the majority of their sales associates came from. They are no longer allowed to discourage any one of any race from filling out an application. In past cases, managers discouraged people of other cultures from applying to Abercrombie & Fitch. Along with the hiring of more minority and people from other cultures, stores are strongly encouraged to promote people of color and different races.
The recruitment and hiring provisions in the consent decree are as follows:
1. No later than four months after the Approval Date, Abercrombie, in
consultation with the industrial organizational psychologist, shall develop and implement a written Recruitment and Hiring Protocol to recruit and hire job applicants for all hourly in-store positions and the Manager- in-Training position. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall require that Abercrombie affirmatively seek out applications from qualified African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos of both genders.
2. Abercrombie’s recruitment and operations materials will reflect diversity in race, color, national origin and gender in the United States, including the use of African Americans, Asian Americans and Latino models of both genders.
3. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall prohibit Abercrombie from
discouraging the submission of an application by any qualified person, or discarding or otherwise diverting any application submitted. In addition, the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall instruct Managers to make available and accept applications for Manager- in-Training at all of the places and through all of the means that applications for Brand Representative are made available and received.
4. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall require clear and concise
written job descriptions for each in-store non-managerial position and the Manager-in-Training position.
5. Job descriptions will be made available to anyone who requests them, and
non- management job descriptions will be made available in a single package so that potential applicants are made aware of the differences among positions.
6. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol will contain instructions for
dissemination of applications, the conduct of structured interviews, programs to train involved staff, hiring decisions, documentation, and the hiring process generally.
7. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall instruct Managers that Minority associates shall not be disproportionately assigned involuntarily to any particular positions on the basis of race or national origin.
8. Within sixty (60) days of the adoption of the Recruitment and Hiring
Protocol and continuing every twelve (12) months thereafter, Abercrombie will use Best Efforts to train all involved staff in the conduct of structured interviews and other elements of the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol.
9. Abercrombie will provide Lead Counsel and the EEOC with the
Recruitment and Hiring Protocol and the job descriptions in order to provide an opportunity for comment regarding the adequacy of the Recruiting and Hiring Protocol. If the parties cannot agree on the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol, any disputes will be submitted to the Special Master for resolution and the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall be affirmed by the Special
Master unless Lead Counsel and /or the EEOC demonstrate that said protocol is clearly improper and not in accordance with accepted industrial organizational psychologist professional standards. Any decision of the Special Master is final and not subject to appeal.
In addition to the statements in the consent decree, Abercrombie & Fitch was required to hire 25 diversity recruiters. The recruiters are people of color, Asian Americans, and Latinos. Another mandatory position to be added to the company is the Vice President of diversity, who will oversee the progress of the company’s rate of completion of goals stated in the decree.
Recruiters will organize and attend various multi-cultural recruiting events, to encourage people of all different races and ethnicities to apply to Abercrombie & Fitch.
Marketing and Advertising Changes
Abercrombie & Fitch received a lot of publicity for the content and models in their advertising campaigns. They contained overly sexual poses, and also did not include a very multicultural cast of models. Critics often compared their advertising and marketing techniques to that of other clothing companies like J.Crew and Ralph Lauren. These companies sell merchandise and apparel that reflect an “All-American” or “waspy” look, yet they incorporate models from all different ethnicities and cultures.
The consent decree required Abercrombie & Fitch to include a more multicultural look on posters displayed in their stores, shopping bags, and online commercials. Having a company change so many aspects of their marketing technique was a first in the retail industry.
Several important excerpts from the decree are as follows:
1. Abercrombie believes that the artistic aspect of its marketing materials is a
critical factor driving the success of Abercrombie and its brand. As a company committed to achieving diversity in its store associates, as reflected in the other terms of this Decree, Abercrombie will reflect diversity, as reflected by the major racial/ethnic minority populations of the United States, in its marketing materials (taken as a whole).
2. Marketing materials include specifically, but not exclusively: quarterly
magazines and similar materials, shopping bags, store posters and video, website, A&F TV, and purchased advertising.
In addition to having models of color and minority, Abercrombie & Fitch was required to have their advertisements in minority based publications. They will have ads in media that target minority groups so that anyone can apply for a job with the company if they feel they want to do so.
Benchmarks
The consent decree states that Abercrombie & Fitch will have to reach certain “benchmarks” in order to comply with the demands in writing. The decree stressed the fact that these are not quotas, but in fact goals to guide the company through its change.
For the first few months that the decree is in effect, Abercrombie & Fitch will have certain goals that they need to reach by a certain deadline – when hiring a specific amount of employees from other cultures. The company will need to at least meet or exceed the percentages stated in writing.
Some important “benchmarks” from the consent decree are as follows:
First six-month period:
African American: five percent (5%);
Latinos: six percent (6%);
Asian Americans: Maintenance Level; and
Women: fifty-three percent (53%).
Second six-month period:
African American: the greater of Percentage Level of six-and-a-half
percent (6.5%)
Latinos: the greater of Percentage Level of seven percent (7%)
Asian Americans: the greater of Maintenance Level
Women: the greater of Percentage Level of fifty-three percent
(53%)
Third six-month period:
African Americans: the greater of Percentage Level of seven-anda-
half percent (7.5%)
Latinos: the greater of Percentage Level of eight percent (8%)
Asian Americans: the greater of Maintenance Level
Women: the greater of Percentage Level of fifty-three percent
(53%)
Advertising Campaign
To supplement the changes being made internally, Abercrombie & Fitch launched a multicultural advertising campaign. The photos featured models of different ethnicities – African American, Asian American, and Hispanic – wearing Abercrombie & Fitch clothing. In each photo, there was a slogan about diversity. The theme of the fall 2005 recruiting theme was “Diversity is Who We Are.”
Below are examples of the models and slogans used in the campaign:
The slogans included in the campaign use words to describe their new recruiting and marketing efforts. In the photo on the left, the slogan reads:
“Inclusion is about enabling those differences to equally contribute.”
Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to point out that they are now including everyone, no matter what race, color, or creed. The second photo has a slogan that reads:
“Diversity is about who we are as individuals – what is seen and unseen.”
Again, Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to highlight that they are now a multicultural brand – including people from all cultures and ethnicities.
The campaign was launched on their website under the new diversity section. It sent a strong message to customers that the company is ready for change. It was a smart idea, but I do not think it reached the amount of people it needed to just through the website.
Evaluation
Professional Opinion
T.J. Tauriello: Publicist – Atlantic Records
I spoke with T.J Tauriello, a publicist for Atlantic Records in New York City. He handles the majority of press and publicity for artists on the east coast. Most recently, he worked with Kid Rock after his Video Music Awards fight with fellow musician Tommy Lee. T.J. helped to salvage Kid Rock’s image in a timely manner before his new album came out. Thanks to T.J., the public’s opinion about Kid Rock remained positive, because his album debuted at #1.
Before he became a publicist at Atlantic Records, T.J. worked at Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. He was familiar with their policies and hiring practices. I asked T.J. what his thoughts were on the company’s hiring practices.
“I definitely saw discrimination while I was employed at Abercrombie & Fitch,” Tauriello said. “Sometimes the managers would deliberately try to talk someone who wasn’t white out of applying for a job. They would make excuses like there were no positions to fill, but at the time we were always hiring. As a white male, I never felt discriminated against, but I did notice how they treated employees of other races and ethnicities a little differently.”
I also asked T.J. if he thought that Abercrombie & Fitch handled the lawsuit properly.
“I think that they followed the rules and took every necessary step,” T.J. said. “I think that the consent decree was a step in the right direction, and made the public see that they were actively trying to work to solve the problem. From a P.R. standpoint, I think that they did everything they were supposed to do. As an employee during this time, it seemed to me that they were following the new rules because they had to. There was still a sense of discrimination in the store.”
My next question for T.J. was if he thought the multicultural advertising campaign was effective.
“I think that they tried a little too hard with this one,” T.J. mentioned. “It seemed to me like they were trying to shove their new ‘multicultural’ image in everyone’s face. It seemed like a little too much too soon. If they wanted to get a bigger effect, I think they could have published the images in media other than their website. Nice try, though.”
For my final question, I asked T.J. if he thought that the lawsuit changed the company for the better, and if he thinks there is still discrimination in the workplace.
“I definitely think there is still some discrimination within the company,” T.J. stated. “Although they now employ people from all ethnicities, the workforce is still overwhelmingly white. I think that the lawsuit changed the company for a short time while they were under a microscope, but I think that they are slowly regressing back to their old ways – and that’s a problem.”
My opinion
I agree with T.J. on many levels. I was employed for a short time by Hollister Co., but left the job after I saw discrimination still being a factor in the workplace. There are still people of color in the stockroom, and the employees on the sales floor are almost all white. However, I did see a copy of the consent decree and several anti-discrimination notices all over the back room.
I think that the lawsuit was a wakeup call for Abercrombie & Fitch, but they still have a long way to go as a company. I personally saw discrimination still present in the workplace, and I think that they need to be under constant watch if they want to truly change their ways. The lawsuit put the company under the spotlight only for a short time. I think that they behaved during that time only to make nice with their customers, and stay in business. But now that the attention is not on them so much anymore, like T.J. said, they are slowly regressing back to their old ways.
From a P.R. standpoint, I do think that Abercrombie & Fitch took the correct steps and went about solving the problem in the right way. Settling the lawsuit was one of their smartest moves. It showed the public that they accepted the fact that they were wrong and took responsibility. I think it was good to settle the lawsuit because it showed that as a company, they cared about their employees and if they had done any wrong to them.
Overall Evaluation
Abercrombie & Fitch could have suffered worse consequences if they did not handle their lawsuit the way that they did. They took the necessary steps to save them from a possible disaster. If their loyal customers and other businesses did not stand by their side and keep them afloat during this critical time, Abercrombie & Fitch easily could have gone out of business or went bankrupt. But because they put together a plan and were proactive about solving the problem, people still remained with the company.
Perhaps it is still a little too early to tell if the company has made any significant progress. The lawsuit settlement and company changes are still relatively recent – 2004 was only a few years ago. As time goes on, if they continue to follow the consent decree and make steady progress with meeting their benchmarks, Abercrombie & Fitch can bounce back from all of the negative press and disappointment in the eyes of the public.
The most important thing for Abercrombie & Fitch to do is to make sure that the public does not see them as a discriminatory company. It is vital that they reassure their customers that they are making the necessary changes and are still working to make the workplace a multicultural environment. They need to make sure that the public is certain that the changes within Abercrombie & Fitch are not temporary, and that they are progressively making a permanent change.
This case study examines Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch, the largest discrimination lawsuit filed against the company in all of its years of existence. What did the company do to change its policies? Did they change their definition of “All-American?” Do they still enforce the new diversity policies in their stores today?
Abercrombie & Fitch continues to operate and successfully sell their apparel in the United States and around the world. This case study investigates the changes that have been made inside the company, as well as changes to their marketing, advertising, and hiring strategies.
Situation Overview
In June 2003, Eduardo Gonzalez, along with several other African American, Hispanic, and Asian former Abercrombie & Fitch employees, filed a class action lawsuit against the company for racial discrimination. The former “brand representatives” felt that the company assigned them specific tasks and areas to work in based on their ethnicity.
The lawsuit, Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch was originally filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in June 2003 by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann, & Bernstein, LLP. The suit was consolidated with other cases charging employment discrimination against women and minorities filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the law firm of Minami, Lew, & Tamaki, LLP., and the law firm of Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C.
Even with overwhelming evidence being present and several employees coming forward to attest to these allegations, Abercrombie & Fitch denied that they were discriminatory in any way. There were several testimonies and stories from former employees that clearly depicted prejudiced practices by the company.
At an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Costa Mesa, California, one former employee came forward with her experience. Jennifer Lu, a brand representative at the Crystal Court Mall location for over three years, worked at Abercrombie & Fitch while she was a student at the University of California, Irvine.
While at work one day, a corporate executive came for a store visit. While looking around the store, he pointed to a poster of a white, shirtless male and told the staff: “This is the ‘A&F’ look – you need to make your store look more like this.” A little less than a month later, Lu and five other Asian American sales associates were terminated. Several African American employees who also worked at the Costa Mesa store were transferred to the stock room in the back of the store – out of customer view.
“I was very distressed after I was terminated for being an Asian American woman,” Jennifer Lu stated.
Her story was just one of many that came out to further prove that Abercrombie & Fitch practiced discriminatory practices in the workplace.
Eduardo Gonzalez
Eduardo Gonzalez was the lead plaintiff in the case. A senior at Stanford University from Hayward, California, Gonzalez applied at for a job at the Santa Clara store. He claimed that when he filled out his application, managers urged him to apply for the overnight stocking crew. When he went to the store for his group interview with 13 other applicants, he noticed that the manager favored the two white candidates.
“I remember how discouraged I felt when I applied for a job at the Santa Clara store and the manager suggested that I work in the stock room or on the late night crew in a non-sales position,” Eduardo Gonzalez told reporters. “I felt it was because I was a Latino – but there was no one I could report this to at the time.”
Anthony Ocampo
Anthony Ocamp was a recent Stanford graduate when he decided to apply for a job at a southern California store. When he went to the location and asked for an application, he was told my management that he could not be hired because there were already “too many Filipinos” working there.
“It is important that Abercrombie seek out employees of color and provide them with training and opportunities for promotion,” Ocampo stated in an interview.
Carla Grubb
Carla Grubb was an African American student at California State Bakersfield, worked at an Abercrombie & Fitch store at the Bakersfield Valley Plaza Mall. After working there for a short time, she began to get assigned cleaning and other menial jobs. She was fired soon after.
“I felt demoralized being the only African-American employee and being specifically assigned to dust the store, wash the windows, and clean the floors,” Grubb told reporters. “I was always doing cleaning – they said I was a good window washer. I should have received the same treatment as everybody else. It made me feel bad. No one should be judged by the color of their skin.”
Company Overview
Abercrombie & Co. was founded by David Abercrombie on June 4, 1892. In 1900, Ezra Fitch joined the company and it then became known as Abercrombie & Fitch. Since the very beginning, the two did not see eye to eye on the direction that they wanted to take the company. Abercrombie wanted to sell outdoors gear and apparel, while Fitch wanted to sell more mainstream clothing. After years of feuding, Abercrombie left the company in 1907.
Despite his departure, the company continued to grow without Abercrombie. Fitch still kept the outdoor feel of the company – a campfire was burning in one corner of the store. He also sold hunting, fishing, and camping gear, but also sold clothing for the average person.
In 1909, Abercrombie & Fitch started a mail-order catalog. The 456 page catalog was mailed out to 50,000 customers, and included many of the same items that were sold in the store. In addition to merchandise, the catalog included articles and advice columns. Although the cost of the catalog almost caused the company to claim bankruptcy, it was an effective marketing tool and increased their sales.
The company kept expanding and opening up stores in a few different locations. A flagship store was opened in 1917 on Madison Avenue in New York. At the time, this was their largest store. In the basement there was a shooting range, on the mezzanine there were items for skiing, archery, and lawn games. The second through the fifth floors were reserved for clothing that was suitable for any climate or terrain. On the sixth floor, there was a picture gallery and a bookstore that was mainly about sporting themes, a watch repair area and a golf school. There was a professional on hand to assist customers with any questions that they had about a particular sport. The seventh floor included a gun room, stuffed game heads, and several hundred shot guns and rifles. The eighth floor was all about fishing, camping, and boating.
Ezra Fitch retired from the company in 1929. Even with his departure and under new ownership, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to expand. It gained a reputation as the “Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World.”
Company Overview (continued)
Abercrombie & Fitch began opening stores in shopping malls across the country. These included malls in Chicago, San Francisco, and New Jersey. Although sales remained constant for several years, in the 1960s they saw a decline. In 1977, Abercrombie & Fitch claimed bankruptcy. This coincidentally occurred the same year that modern competitor American Eagle began their business.
Even though they were suffering financially, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to operate for the next several years. In 1988, clothing giant The Limited Inc. acquired the distressed company. They re-launched Abercrombie & Fitch with a new look and sales strategy.
Stores began to be opened and operated in upscale malls across the United States. The new target demographic was specifically 18-24 year old college students. Their new apparel was “upscale” and “preppy” and they described their image as “sexy, classy, casual, and All-American.”
With its newfound success, Abercrombie & Fitch expanded to target other audiences. In 1998, abercrombie kids opened. This store targeted young kids. In 2000, Hollister Co. opened its doors. This brand targeted younger high school students ages 14-18. Prices at Hollister were also about 30% less than at Abercrombie & Fitch. Most recently, in 2004, a fourth brand called Rhuel No. 925 was launched to target the older, post college graduate audience ages 24 and up. Prices at Rhuel No. 925 were significantly higher than those at Abercrombie & Fitch.
Other Controversy
In recent years, Abercrombie & Fitch has faced several controversial lawsuits and boycotts because of the content and style of their merchandise.
Uniform Lawsuit
In 2002, several Abercrombie & Fitch employees complained and filed a lawsuit stating that they were forced to buy and wear the company’s clothing when at work. In a settlement, Abercrombie & Fitch agreed to pay $2.2 million to 11,000 workers employed from January 1, 1999 to February 15, 2002.
Each employee was awarded $200 to $490. This settlement was the first of its kind, and today, workers at any Abercrombie & Fitch run store is only required to wear clothing that reflects the look of the company.
Asian Boycott
In 2002, Asian Americans refused to buy clothing at Abercrombie & Fitch because of a controversial line of t-shirts. Earlier that year, the clothing company printed t-shirts that had, what some claimed, racist slogans. One shirt in particular had a cartoon of two Asian men and the words “Wong Brothers Laundry Service. Two Wongs Can Make It White.”
That is just one example of many controversial Asian t-shirts. Abercrombie & Fitch sales suffered because Asian Americans boycotted the store. The t-shirts were eventually pulled off the shelves.
West Virginia Controversy
In 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch began selling a t-shirt with the slogan, “Its All Relative in West Virginia.” Shortly after the release, Governor Bob Wise sent a letter to the company asking them to remove the shirt from their stores.
“The shirt depicts an unfounded, negative stereotype of the state,” Governor Wise stated. Abercrombie pulled the shirts from the shelves.
Girl-Cott
In 2005, the Women & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania protested Abercrombie & Fitch after they started selling t-shirts with the slogan, “Who Needs Brains When You Have These?” The slogan referred to breasts. Another controversial slogan that appeared on t-shirts said, “I Had a Nightmare I Was a Brunette.”
Although Abercrombie & Fitch claimed that the shirts were meant to be humorous, many women all over the country were offended. They reached an agreement with the group and stopped selling several of the t-shirts in question.
Advertisements and Commercials
Abercrombie & Fitch has been under constant scrutiny over the sexuality in their advertising and marketing campaigns. More often than not, commercials and advertisements for the clothing company feature scantily clad young men and women in controversial positions.
A&F Quarterly, the company’s magazine that is distributed 4 times a year, received the majority of the backlash. When paging through the publication, it is evident that sexuality overpowers the images.
Not only did Abercrombie & Fitch face controversy over the sexuality of their ad campaigns, but the models featured were predominately white. This sparked debate and prompted investigation of racial discrimination within the company.
The summer 2003 A&F quarterly features 67 models, all of whom are white. There is one woman pictured whose features are racially ambiguous. The back-to-school version, which was released after the Gonzalez v. Abercrombie lawsuit, featured about 100 models, and all but four appeared to be white. There is one exception, where a black coupled is pictured at the window of an old house. They are outside looking in. Some saw this as a metaphor, for the way the company treated minorities.
Abercrombie & Fitch’s only defense was that they used models that they felt reflected the clothing company’s “All-American” image. Law officials and employees did not agree. Many people felt that it was unfair to define what “All-American” is, and demanded that more multicultural models be featured in advertising and marketing materials.
Objectives
After Abercrombie & Fitch settled the Gonzalez v. Abercrombie lawsuit, they set several objectives to meet that would change the way they hire their employees, advertise, and market their brand. Since the suit was filed, the public developed a negative opinion about the company. Abercrombie & Fitch would strive to meet the objectives set so that the public would regain their trust and positive connection with the brand.
Change Marketing Direction
Abercrombie & Fitch decided to change their marketing and advertising tactics. When hiring models for their campaigns, they will keep an open mind more than ever before.
“This agreement promises to transform this company, whose distinctiveness will no longer stem from an all-white image and workforce,” stated Thomas A. Saenz, vice president of litigation of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
Change Hiring Practices
Abercrombie & Fitch decided to change the way that they hire new employees. In the past, managers targeted fraternities and sororities for new brand representatives. Now, the company will be open to hire people from all cultures and races and not narrow down new hires only to a certain population.
“Abercrombie had a back-of-the-bus mentality,” said Kimberley West-Faulcon of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. “Now instead of hiring them in the back of the store, they will have diversity recruiters. It sends a message to young people that we are moving past this kind of thing.”
Tactics and Responses
Abercrombie & Fitch responded to the Gonzalez lawsuit in a number of ways. They set objectives and goals for the company to reach, and went about reaching the goals in a very effective, structured manner. The first thing that they did was settle the class action lawsuit that was brought against them for discrimination.
Lawsuit Settled
Abercrombie & Fitch settled the Gonzalez lawsuit and agreed to pay $40 million to Latino, African American, women and Asian American past and present employees who felt discriminated against. A San Francisco judge approved the class action settlement for the company to pay the millions to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs.
In addition to the $40 million dollar payout, Abercrombie & Fitch also agreed to pay an additional $10 million to cover the plaintiffs’ court and legal fees.
Consent Decree
The class action lawsuit settlement also required Abercrombie & Fitch to follow a very detailed 70 page consent decree. The document set rules and goals for the company to make a positive change in the way its image is perceived. The decree sets specific goals and changes in the way that Abercrombie & Fitch uses marketing, advertising, and the way they hire and promote their employees.
Line 12, Page 15 of the decree states:
“Abercrombie is hereby enjoined from enacting, maintaining, or implementing any policy or engaging in any practice or procedure that discriminates against African Americans, Asian Americans, or Latinos on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin.”
The general equitable provisions are as follows:
2. Abercrombie is hereby enjoined from enacting, maintaining or implementing any policy or engaging in any practice or procedure that discriminates against women on the basis of gender.
3. Abercrombie is hereby enjoined from enacting, maintaining or
implementing any policy or engaging in any practice, conduct or procedure that retaliates or has the purpose of retaliating against any future, current or former employee or applicant of Abercrombie because he or she opposed discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or gender; filed a charge of discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or gender; testified, furnished information or participated in any manner in any investigation, proceeding, or hearing in connection with any charge or complaint of discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or gender; testified, furnished information or participated in any manner in connection with the monitoring or implementation of this Decree; or sought and/or received any monetary and/or non- monetary relief pursuant to this Consent Decree.
4. Abercrombie will implement or maintain non-discrimination and nonharassment policies and an internal complaint procedure designed to assure equal employment opportunity.
5. Abercrombie will make available to Minority and female associates and
applicants the same employment opportunities and terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, job assignments, and managerial promotions, as Abercrombie affords similarly-situated white male employees.
Recruiting Changes
After the settlement, Abercrombie & Fitch had to change the way that they go about recruiting and hiring their prospective employees. The company is no longer allowed to target fraternities and sororities, two places where the majority of their sales associates came from. They are no longer allowed to discourage any one of any race from filling out an application. In past cases, managers discouraged people of other cultures from applying to Abercrombie & Fitch. Along with the hiring of more minority and people from other cultures, stores are strongly encouraged to promote people of color and different races.
The recruitment and hiring provisions in the consent decree are as follows:
1. No later than four months after the Approval Date, Abercrombie, in
consultation with the industrial organizational psychologist, shall develop and implement a written Recruitment and Hiring Protocol to recruit and hire job applicants for all hourly in-store positions and the Manager- in-Training position. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall require that Abercrombie affirmatively seek out applications from qualified African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos of both genders.
2. Abercrombie’s recruitment and operations materials will reflect diversity in race, color, national origin and gender in the United States, including the use of African Americans, Asian Americans and Latino models of both genders.
3. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall prohibit Abercrombie from
discouraging the submission of an application by any qualified person, or discarding or otherwise diverting any application submitted. In addition, the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall instruct Managers to make available and accept applications for Manager- in-Training at all of the places and through all of the means that applications for Brand Representative are made available and received.
4. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall require clear and concise
written job descriptions for each in-store non-managerial position and the Manager-in-Training position.
5. Job descriptions will be made available to anyone who requests them, and
non- management job descriptions will be made available in a single package so that potential applicants are made aware of the differences among positions.
6. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol will contain instructions for
dissemination of applications, the conduct of structured interviews, programs to train involved staff, hiring decisions, documentation, and the hiring process generally.
7. The Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall instruct Managers that Minority associates shall not be disproportionately assigned involuntarily to any particular positions on the basis of race or national origin.
8. Within sixty (60) days of the adoption of the Recruitment and Hiring
Protocol and continuing every twelve (12) months thereafter, Abercrombie will use Best Efforts to train all involved staff in the conduct of structured interviews and other elements of the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol.
9. Abercrombie will provide Lead Counsel and the EEOC with the
Recruitment and Hiring Protocol and the job descriptions in order to provide an opportunity for comment regarding the adequacy of the Recruiting and Hiring Protocol. If the parties cannot agree on the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol, any disputes will be submitted to the Special Master for resolution and the Recruitment and Hiring Protocol shall be affirmed by the Special
Master unless Lead Counsel and /or the EEOC demonstrate that said protocol is clearly improper and not in accordance with accepted industrial organizational psychologist professional standards. Any decision of the Special Master is final and not subject to appeal.
In addition to the statements in the consent decree, Abercrombie & Fitch was required to hire 25 diversity recruiters. The recruiters are people of color, Asian Americans, and Latinos. Another mandatory position to be added to the company is the Vice President of diversity, who will oversee the progress of the company’s rate of completion of goals stated in the decree.
Recruiters will organize and attend various multi-cultural recruiting events, to encourage people of all different races and ethnicities to apply to Abercrombie & Fitch.
Marketing and Advertising Changes
Abercrombie & Fitch received a lot of publicity for the content and models in their advertising campaigns. They contained overly sexual poses, and also did not include a very multicultural cast of models. Critics often compared their advertising and marketing techniques to that of other clothing companies like J.Crew and Ralph Lauren. These companies sell merchandise and apparel that reflect an “All-American” or “waspy” look, yet they incorporate models from all different ethnicities and cultures.
The consent decree required Abercrombie & Fitch to include a more multicultural look on posters displayed in their stores, shopping bags, and online commercials. Having a company change so many aspects of their marketing technique was a first in the retail industry.
Several important excerpts from the decree are as follows:
1. Abercrombie believes that the artistic aspect of its marketing materials is a
critical factor driving the success of Abercrombie and its brand. As a company committed to achieving diversity in its store associates, as reflected in the other terms of this Decree, Abercrombie will reflect diversity, as reflected by the major racial/ethnic minority populations of the United States, in its marketing materials (taken as a whole).
2. Marketing materials include specifically, but not exclusively: quarterly
magazines and similar materials, shopping bags, store posters and video, website, A&F TV, and purchased advertising.
In addition to having models of color and minority, Abercrombie & Fitch was required to have their advertisements in minority based publications. They will have ads in media that target minority groups so that anyone can apply for a job with the company if they feel they want to do so.
Benchmarks
The consent decree states that Abercrombie & Fitch will have to reach certain “benchmarks” in order to comply with the demands in writing. The decree stressed the fact that these are not quotas, but in fact goals to guide the company through its change.
For the first few months that the decree is in effect, Abercrombie & Fitch will have certain goals that they need to reach by a certain deadline – when hiring a specific amount of employees from other cultures. The company will need to at least meet or exceed the percentages stated in writing.
Some important “benchmarks” from the consent decree are as follows:
First six-month period:
African American: five percent (5%);
Latinos: six percent (6%);
Asian Americans: Maintenance Level; and
Women: fifty-three percent (53%).
Second six-month period:
African American: the greater of Percentage Level of six-and-a-half
percent (6.5%)
Latinos: the greater of Percentage Level of seven percent (7%)
Asian Americans: the greater of Maintenance Level
Women: the greater of Percentage Level of fifty-three percent
(53%)
Third six-month period:
African Americans: the greater of Percentage Level of seven-anda-
half percent (7.5%)
Latinos: the greater of Percentage Level of eight percent (8%)
Asian Americans: the greater of Maintenance Level
Women: the greater of Percentage Level of fifty-three percent
(53%)
Advertising Campaign
To supplement the changes being made internally, Abercrombie & Fitch launched a multicultural advertising campaign. The photos featured models of different ethnicities – African American, Asian American, and Hispanic – wearing Abercrombie & Fitch clothing. In each photo, there was a slogan about diversity. The theme of the fall 2005 recruiting theme was “Diversity is Who We Are.”
Below are examples of the models and slogans used in the campaign:
The slogans included in the campaign use words to describe their new recruiting and marketing efforts. In the photo on the left, the slogan reads:
“Inclusion is about enabling those differences to equally contribute.”
Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to point out that they are now including everyone, no matter what race, color, or creed. The second photo has a slogan that reads:
“Diversity is about who we are as individuals – what is seen and unseen.”
Again, Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to highlight that they are now a multicultural brand – including people from all cultures and ethnicities.
The campaign was launched on their website under the new diversity section. It sent a strong message to customers that the company is ready for change. It was a smart idea, but I do not think it reached the amount of people it needed to just through the website.
Evaluation
Professional Opinion
T.J. Tauriello: Publicist – Atlantic Records
I spoke with T.J Tauriello, a publicist for Atlantic Records in New York City. He handles the majority of press and publicity for artists on the east coast. Most recently, he worked with Kid Rock after his Video Music Awards fight with fellow musician Tommy Lee. T.J. helped to salvage Kid Rock’s image in a timely manner before his new album came out. Thanks to T.J., the public’s opinion about Kid Rock remained positive, because his album debuted at #1.
Before he became a publicist at Atlantic Records, T.J. worked at Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. He was familiar with their policies and hiring practices. I asked T.J. what his thoughts were on the company’s hiring practices.
“I definitely saw discrimination while I was employed at Abercrombie & Fitch,” Tauriello said. “Sometimes the managers would deliberately try to talk someone who wasn’t white out of applying for a job. They would make excuses like there were no positions to fill, but at the time we were always hiring. As a white male, I never felt discriminated against, but I did notice how they treated employees of other races and ethnicities a little differently.”
I also asked T.J. if he thought that Abercrombie & Fitch handled the lawsuit properly.
“I think that they followed the rules and took every necessary step,” T.J. said. “I think that the consent decree was a step in the right direction, and made the public see that they were actively trying to work to solve the problem. From a P.R. standpoint, I think that they did everything they were supposed to do. As an employee during this time, it seemed to me that they were following the new rules because they had to. There was still a sense of discrimination in the store.”
My next question for T.J. was if he thought the multicultural advertising campaign was effective.
“I think that they tried a little too hard with this one,” T.J. mentioned. “It seemed to me like they were trying to shove their new ‘multicultural’ image in everyone’s face. It seemed like a little too much too soon. If they wanted to get a bigger effect, I think they could have published the images in media other than their website. Nice try, though.”
For my final question, I asked T.J. if he thought that the lawsuit changed the company for the better, and if he thinks there is still discrimination in the workplace.
“I definitely think there is still some discrimination within the company,” T.J. stated. “Although they now employ people from all ethnicities, the workforce is still overwhelmingly white. I think that the lawsuit changed the company for a short time while they were under a microscope, but I think that they are slowly regressing back to their old ways – and that’s a problem.”
My opinion
I agree with T.J. on many levels. I was employed for a short time by Hollister Co., but left the job after I saw discrimination still being a factor in the workplace. There are still people of color in the stockroom, and the employees on the sales floor are almost all white. However, I did see a copy of the consent decree and several anti-discrimination notices all over the back room.
I think that the lawsuit was a wakeup call for Abercrombie & Fitch, but they still have a long way to go as a company. I personally saw discrimination still present in the workplace, and I think that they need to be under constant watch if they want to truly change their ways. The lawsuit put the company under the spotlight only for a short time. I think that they behaved during that time only to make nice with their customers, and stay in business. But now that the attention is not on them so much anymore, like T.J. said, they are slowly regressing back to their old ways.
From a P.R. standpoint, I do think that Abercrombie & Fitch took the correct steps and went about solving the problem in the right way. Settling the lawsuit was one of their smartest moves. It showed the public that they accepted the fact that they were wrong and took responsibility. I think it was good to settle the lawsuit because it showed that as a company, they cared about their employees and if they had done any wrong to them.
Overall Evaluation
Abercrombie & Fitch could have suffered worse consequences if they did not handle their lawsuit the way that they did. They took the necessary steps to save them from a possible disaster. If their loyal customers and other businesses did not stand by their side and keep them afloat during this critical time, Abercrombie & Fitch easily could have gone out of business or went bankrupt. But because they put together a plan and were proactive about solving the problem, people still remained with the company.
Perhaps it is still a little too early to tell if the company has made any significant progress. The lawsuit settlement and company changes are still relatively recent – 2004 was only a few years ago. As time goes on, if they continue to follow the consent decree and make steady progress with meeting their benchmarks, Abercrombie & Fitch can bounce back from all of the negative press and disappointment in the eyes of the public.
The most important thing for Abercrombie & Fitch to do is to make sure that the public does not see them as a discriminatory company. It is vital that they reassure their customers that they are making the necessary changes and are still working to make the workplace a multicultural environment. They need to make sure that the public is certain that the changes within Abercrombie & Fitch are not temporary, and that they are progressively making a permanent change.
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