Rodarte campaign poster featuring a ghostlike model
Renowned Canadian makeup brand, M.A.C. Cosmetics caused a stir among beauty enthusiasts when they announced the M.A.C. Rodarte Makeup Collection for Fall 2010 because of negative implication from the names of the products. Inspired by towns on the Texas/Mexican border, the designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy created the Rodarte collection because they were mesmerized by the scenic place while on a road trip.
They created a clothing line that was beautiful but they did not expect the controversy after it was translated into makeup products with eyebrow-raising names. Nail polishes with names like Juarez and Factory enraged beauty bloggers on the Internet, especially The Frisky’s Jessica Wakeman.
“Why’s it tasteless? Juarez is an impoverished Mexican factory town notorious for the number of women between the ages of 12 and 22 who have been raped and murdered with little or no response from police,” Wakeman argued.
“Most of the young women are employees at the border town’s factories, called maquilladoras, and disappeared on the way to or from work,” she said.
M.A.C. replied with an official statement and decided to benefit the Juarez womens’ plights.
“We understand that product names in the M.A.C. Rodarte collection have offended some of our consumers and fans.This was never our intent and we are very sorry. We are listening carefully to the comments posted and are grateful to those of you who have brought your concerns to the forefront of our attention. M.A.C. will give a portion of the proceeds from the M.A.C. Rodarte collection to help those in need in Juarez. We are diligently investigating the best way to do this. Please be assured that we will keep you posted on the details regarding our efforts.”
Personally, I think M.A.C. took care of the situation responsibly and with this incident, the difficulties these women faced were highlighted. Every cloud has a silver lining and in this case, it was awareness and action towards the factory workers.
(Source:Stylelist)