At AutoSpies.com you know you can count on us to spot the trends and cover bubbling issues in the car business long before anyone else.
Over the last year we've been featuring articles asking if celebrities driving certain brands diminish and actually HURT the brand.
Some in particular, were a Jersey Shore cast members buying a Mercedes and another recently getting a BMW.
Now we're seeing a retailer of clothes make the first move to protect the image of their brand.
Teen clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF.N) has offered money to get away from what it sees as an undesirable Situation.
The preppy retailer has offered to pay cast members from MTV's popular show "Jersey Shore" to stop wearing its clothes, it said in a news release late Tuesday.
The company is "deeply concerned" that Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino "could cause significant damage" to the brand's "aspirational nature."
"Jersey Shore" features a cast of twenty-something Italian Americans partying, tanning and complaining about their jobs at a beach-front T-shirt stand.
The offer could be considered an abrupt about-face for a company that previously sold T-shirts emblazoned with the wording "The Fitchuation."
While seen as more of a publicity stunt than anything else, the offer was mentioned in notes on Wednesday by Wall Street analysts.
In a report titled "Jersey abs not welcome here," an analyst noted that on the latest episode The Situation "proudly (and loudly) wore a pair of neon green A&F sweatpants."
How long will it be before car companies do the same?
Spies, discuss...
Source: Reuters
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