Clothing brands appear to have committed the biggest brand fails of Hurricane Sandy, with both American Apparel and Gap forgetting that death and loss make a poor springboard for promotional messaging. American Apparel sent out an email blast on Monday night offering 20 percent off to customers in nine Eastern states for the next 36 hours—"in case you're bored during the storm." ("Just Enter SANDYSALE at Checkout," the ad advised.) It was met uniformly with derision on Twitter. Somewhat less egregious, though still plenty tacky, was Gap's exhortation to people—within a single tweet—to stay safe during the storm and also maybe do a little shopping at Gap.com. Gap semi-apologized in a follow-up tweet. American Apparel has said nothing further.
Living up to its reputation for tackiness, @americanapparel sends e-mail blast announcing #Sandy sale "In case you're bored." #GUHH
— Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) October 30, 2012
During the inevitable mea culpa from @americanapparel, they should to donate all proceeds this year to disaster relief.then go out of biz.
— Matthew Knell (@MatthewKnell) October 30, 2012
@gap Try taking a break from being a shill for a couple of days instead of trying to tie in a life-threatening storm warning to your ads?
— jontando (@jontando) October 30, 2012
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