banyon
04-23-2008, 08:52 PM
Those Abercrombie Guys
By Katharine Q. Seelye
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/promos/politics/blog/20080423fitch.533.jpg
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/those-abercrombie-guys/
Who didn’t notice the Abercrombie boys who were standing behind Senator Barack Obama last night? The Caucus even received an e-mail from someone in India who spotted them as Mr. Obama conceded the Pennsylvania primary to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There were more than 7,000 people in Mr. Obama’s crowd, in Indiana, but three young men, all wearing T-shirts with Abercrombie & Fitch logos, were front and center on national television for more than 20 minutes — the kind of advertising that money could not buy.
The young men have yet to surface publicly, so it is not clear whether they were just Obama fans who happened to have dressed alike or whether they coordinated their outfits and tried a deliberate product placement.
We caught up today with Tom Lennox, a spokesman for A&F, who said that the company had absolutely nothing to do with the stunt, if that’s what it was. But he liked it.
“I wish we’d thought of it,” he said.
But not really. The company does not engage in traditional advertising (its arty catalogue, criticized by some as soft porn, has been discontinued), and such product placement is not its style.
“It’s not who we are,” Mr. Lennox said. “We’re not a commercialized brand. We don’t seek that sort of attention.” Advertising is too mainstream, he said.
In fact, many niche retailers don’t advertise, largely because it can be super expensive without a big payoff. And while Mr. Obama’s vaunted appeal to young voters could work synergistically with A&F’s market of teens and college students, most retailers try to avoid associations with political candidates, on the theory that appearing to favor one would surely alienate some of its consumers.
Campaigns, on the other hand, often try to send a message with the kind of crowd it puts within camera range of its candidate. But in this case, Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman said, the campaign “had nothing to do” with these young men. “I assume this was three guys who had been shopping together,” he said.
Mr. Lennox said he did not see Mr. Obama’s speech last night, but he and other company officials, based in New Albany, Ohio, found their in-boxes flooded with word from friends and associates about the prominent display of the T-shirts.
“It caught us off-guard,” he said. “It came out of nowhere.”
Asked if the company might try to track down the three young men, Mr. Lennox said no. “It would probably be tough to get a hold of them anyway because they are probably celebrities by now,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe they’ll replace ‘Obama Girl.’”
By Katharine Q. Seelye
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/promos/politics/blog/20080423fitch.533.jpg
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/those-abercrombie-guys/
Who didn’t notice the Abercrombie boys who were standing behind Senator Barack Obama last night? The Caucus even received an e-mail from someone in India who spotted them as Mr. Obama conceded the Pennsylvania primary to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There were more than 7,000 people in Mr. Obama’s crowd, in Indiana, but three young men, all wearing T-shirts with Abercrombie & Fitch logos, were front and center on national television for more than 20 minutes — the kind of advertising that money could not buy.
The young men have yet to surface publicly, so it is not clear whether they were just Obama fans who happened to have dressed alike or whether they coordinated their outfits and tried a deliberate product placement.
We caught up today with Tom Lennox, a spokesman for A&F, who said that the company had absolutely nothing to do with the stunt, if that’s what it was. But he liked it.
“I wish we’d thought of it,” he said.
But not really. The company does not engage in traditional advertising (its arty catalogue, criticized by some as soft porn, has been discontinued), and such product placement is not its style.
“It’s not who we are,” Mr. Lennox said. “We’re not a commercialized brand. We don’t seek that sort of attention.” Advertising is too mainstream, he said.
In fact, many niche retailers don’t advertise, largely because it can be super expensive without a big payoff. And while Mr. Obama’s vaunted appeal to young voters could work synergistically with A&F’s market of teens and college students, most retailers try to avoid associations with political candidates, on the theory that appearing to favor one would surely alienate some of its consumers.
Campaigns, on the other hand, often try to send a message with the kind of crowd it puts within camera range of its candidate. But in this case, Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman said, the campaign “had nothing to do” with these young men. “I assume this was three guys who had been shopping together,” he said.
Mr. Lennox said he did not see Mr. Obama’s speech last night, but he and other company officials, based in New Albany, Ohio, found their in-boxes flooded with word from friends and associates about the prominent display of the T-shirts.
“It caught us off-guard,” he said. “It came out of nowhere.”
Asked if the company might try to track down the three young men, Mr. Lennox said no. “It would probably be tough to get a hold of them anyway because they are probably celebrities by now,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe they’ll replace ‘Obama Girl.’”