Too little, too late? MAC/Rodarte - an update

Following on from yesterdays post, things have moved on somewhat. After the furore caused by the naming of the products in the Rodarte collection and the countless blog posts/articles which ensued, MAC and Rodart have issued further statements on the subject:

MAC:

"We understand that product names in the M·A·C Rodarte collection have offended our consumers and fans. This was never our intent and we are very sorry. We continue to listen carefully to the comments we have received and have the following plans to address concerns:

·         We are committed to donating $100,000 to a non-profit organization that has a proven, successful track-record helping women in need and that can directly improve the lives of women in Juarez in a meaningful way.

·         We are changing the product names in the M·A·C Rodarte collection.

As we have done in the past, please be assured that we will communicate details regarding our progress in this matter."

Rodarte:

"We recognize that the violence against women taking place in Juarez needs to be met with proactive action. We never intended to make light of this serious issue and we are truly sorry.

Helping to improve the conditions for women in Juarez is a priority for us and we are thankful for all the comments calling attention to the urgency of addressing this situation."

As I said in my previous post, the cynical part of me feels that a donation to the people of Juarez was never even considered until the inspiration behind the collection was called into question, and I can't help feeling that all MAC is doing is papering over the cracks by throwing money at a situation and hoping that it will go away.  I am very happy to see that MAC have acknowledged the fact that the names of some of the items in the collection are controversial to say the least and that they will be changing the names of the products, and I hope that a lesson will be learnt from this debacle and put a bit more thought into the naming of and inspiration behind future collections.

 

On the other hand, I'm  shocked by the statement from Rodarte, which to me suggests that they were well aware of the controversy/publicity that this collection would cause and seem to suggest that the collection was intended to help the women of Juarez. Funny then that there was absolutely no mention of any proceeds going to help the town or its people until the blog posts started to be published……..