It’s pretty common for fashion retailers to give money to models if they’ll take off their clothes so that they can be photographed in various states of undress with the purpose of producing alluring advertisements for shop windows and billboards. But in a twist that goes against this familiar script and the traditional rules of product placement, Abercrombie & Fitch offered to pay money to the cast from Jersey Shore if they promised to take off their Abercrombie & Fitch threads, with the guarantee that they’ll never put them on again. Apparently senior management was worried that the cast “could cause significant damage” to the brand’s “aspirational nature”. Viacom dismissed it as a PR stunt. Abercrombie and Fitch’s shares fell by 8.7% soon after, although analysts attributed this to comments made by senior management about the company entering a period of uncertainty.

Source: Reuters