'The Situation' Fights Back

A few weeks ago we covered an excellent stunt by Abercrombie & Fitch, who told the world they had paid Jersey Shore star Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino to NOT wear their clothes.

It was a shrewd move to create a buzz around their label and also helped them to distance themselves from the show’s trashy appeal.

It seems however that the PR stunt may have backfired with Mr Sorrentino set to launch legal proceedings having received none of the payments A&F said he would receive if he stopped  wearing their clothing.

It’s all become a bit of a mess really, especially with the firm having originally profited from the reality star's name by printing T-shirts with slogans such as 'The Fitchuation' and 'GTL Fitch'.

So where do both Sorrentino and A&F go from here? Well who knows!

In my eyes there is no doubt that the announcement that they were going to pay him to stop wearing their clothes was a clever and effective publicity stunt. However, now that he has called their bluff and supposedly launched legal proceedings this could well leave the clothing brand with egg on their face.

The key to a good stunt is to create a compelling proposition through a combination of words, pictures, props, etc. If ‘The Situation’s’ lawyer is to be believed then A&F have made the elementary error of not following through with what they said they were going to do.

In the media the more grand a statement you make the more people are waiting to rip you apart should you divert from it and I’m sure there are now a few people out their locking their sites on A&F.

Could this be a counter PR move to try and curry favour towards Sorrentino and away from the brand? Of course. But once again this will only work if he really does follow through and launch legal proceedings against the firm.

I predict that this story has plenty more mileage in it yet so stay tuned to see who will win the PR battle– the unlikely TV star or the worldwide clothing colossus.