MAC - Juarez

daisyholeR

Did anyone else read on the blogs today about MAC's new collection and it's links to the Mexican city Juarez? I think their attempt to remedy the situation by changing product names and donating 100k is pretty pathetic. Personally I think they should keep the names in a way to highlight the city's violence against women and donate all profits to the cause. Any thoughts?

E.T.

I think that's a great idea - although only if it's guaranteed in some way that the money would directly benefit the women of Juarez. I can't decide if MAC or Rodarte (the designers that MAC were doing this makeup collection for) are worse. I read some BS online about the designers being inspired by the landscape. What an absolute crock of sh*t! The idea of using a town like this as the inspiration for disgustingly expensive clothes is really sickening.

Here's a link to some of the debates in case anyone hasn't read about it yet:
http://www.vexinthecity.com/2010/07/mac-rodarte-collection-ignites-juarez.html

Pythia

Hmm, didn't know about this til now. I don't think it's a very nice connection. Mexico should be about bright colours, not the stuff they have there. Like the article says, they probably thought they were being edgy. I can't see how this all got signed off in the first place by EL.

Jessibelle

The sheer ignorance of MAC in this instance is absolutely staggering, and they seem to be attempting to turn this debacle to their advantage by being so good as to use it for 'highlighting' the plight of the poor women in Juarez. The entire campaign, from the promo photos ( a woman dressed in a traditional Mexican shawl, with a very white almost shroudlike top, and make-up that makes her look like death) to the names of the product (aside from Juarez, there’s Factory, Badlands, Ghost town etc), to me really don’t seem to go with a range that was inspired by the warm and bright colours of Mexico.:rolleyes:
While I appreciate that this has brought a horrible situation to the public eye again (it’s already been covered nearly bi-annually in Marie Claire and other beauty mags,) I think the whole range should either be pulled or the entire profits donated to relief. $100,000 is pittance for a massive global company like Lauder. I also think the other cosmetic companies that hold factories there should be seen to make a stand against the conditions and horrors that go on there. However, I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.:(

E.T.

Wow - Jessibelle did you decide to hold your breath after all? MAC have decided not to ship this collection to stores. Probably means they'll just rebrand it but at least it shows that big companies do sometimes listen to criticism. This is the link to the MAC facebook page with the announcement:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=464317952315

Jessibelle

Thanks for that E.T
I don’t think this is good enough. I recognize that MAC have apologised. And I appreciate that but the work that MAC’s achieved by setting up the Viva Glam charity shows that they have the ability to achieve great things. They could have used this as an occaision to raise awareness of the issues in Juarez by publicising it more appropriately on their website and in store. They could have publicised the donation of the profits for a specific reason such as providing counselling and help for the families of victims and setting up a scheme to promote safety for female workers in Juarez. However they didn’t. What they have achieved is to make themselves look like they are attempting to clear up the PR mess with a few vague promises, and I for one, am disappointed by that.