Does this ad offend you? It doesn’t offend me. In fact, it makes me want to go shop at Piperlime for reminding me that I don’t want to look like the bottom of a trash can (or Ke$ha) when I wake up in the morning feelin’ like P. Diddy.
But apparently, a lot of young ladies were offended by Piperlime’s new “Let’s Get Dressed” campaign, so much so that they expressed their disgust for Piperlime via the brand’s Facebook page. AdAge got a hold of this and wrote an article. I heard about this whole debacle from my friend Rachael (who likes the campaign, by the way).
The ads look pretty benign to me: happy, stylish young ladies dressed for fall with slogans like, “Say No to Sweatpants” and “Hang up the Hoodies.” Cute, catchy, and they want you to dress up.
But what was seemingly so offensive to the Facebook users were the statuses that popped up on their Newsfeed after subscribing to their page. Statuses that read,
“Yoga pants aren’t pants” and “If the frienemy sees you out in public in your TV-watching clothes, the frienemy wins.”
garnered responses like this (my snarkiness in italics):
“These judgmental status updates assume everyone lives in large fast paced cities and the reality is that most people don’t. And everyone’s life isn’t about fashion and being shallow on a daily rotation.”
Do you think that judgment is only passed on what you’re wearing if you live in a fast-paced city? I don’t care if you live in Bozeman, Montana, if you go out looking like shit, someone is going to judge you. Who says looking nice should be reserved for cities only?
and
“so because of these posts, i’m removing Piperlime from my favorites. don’t need bitchy-girl status posts on my wall every days, thanks.”
Oh honey, if you’re female and between the ages of 13 and expiration, you’re going to have “bitchy-girl” posts on your wall anyway.
Again, I found these status updates to be benign and even funny, but I guess Piperlime has actually lost shoppers over this. And honestly, I don’t peg the typical Piperlime shopper as the “sweatpants and hoodie in the grocery store” type, so I’m shocked that this campaign has offended so many. Honestly, the most offensive thing about this campaign to me was the misspelling of “frenemy”.
Ugh, where were these people when Forever 21 was launching their maternity line?
But the point is, ladies, Piperlime just wants you to dress nicely. With their lovely selection of clothing. The only thing that they poked fun at are your sweatpants. And they don’t have feelings. (And if you think they do, you might want to be offended at this ad by IKEA).
So thank you AdAge for covering the story, thank you Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners for coming up with a cute and witty campaign, and thank you Piperlime, because after reading about all of this controversy, I immediately went on your site and fell in love with a pair of boots:
vitaminzee.wordpress.com 