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MAC – if this isn’t a Christ on a Bike situation I don’t know what is.
When MAC collaborated with high fashion brand Rodarte they decided to take inspiration for the collaboration from Mexico, after a recent trip the Mulleavy sisters (the creators of the Mac/Rodarte line), took to this part of the world. Sultry colours, hot textures and pieces named after Mexican words and places in Mexico.
The blogosphere has gone mental. Why?
Well Mac stupidly, and with a stunning lack of sensitivity quite untypical of them, named the range’s pink nail polish ‘Juarez’.
Juarez is hell. It’s hell on earth.
Women are raped, murdered and brutalized every day and no one does anything. The police do nothing. The woman are poor – grindingly, terribly poor. Big factories move into town because the rates of pay are so low ($55 for a 45 hour week) and the women who work in them can be treated like absolute shit. (Showing their used tampons to employers to prove they’re not pregnant is only the half of it). And oh yes, the second varnish in the range is called ‘Factory’.
Most of the brutalised women (average age teenage and early twenties) are picked off on their way to work at one of the town’s factories.
Juarez is so bad that it has actually been called a serial killers playground. While many of the killings are done by local men (husbands, brothers etc), unemployed, angry and disenfranchised, because women are now earning the money, it’s also likely that a serial killer or killers is on the loose.
Hundreds and hundreds of women have been murdered and no one has ever been caught for it – because the police aren’t interested in poor women. Read a full report from Amnesty.
So so so many things are wrong with naming a luxury makeup range after this hellish place in which women are murdered, tortured and will never ever be able to actually possess one of these make up items.
Mac have issued an apology this morning for the whole debacle and promised to donate some of the proceeds of the collection to Juarez ($100k). They’re also changing the names of some of the products.
This was a monumental PR gaffe for Mac. But I think something more important has come out of this whole mess. I’d never heard of Juarez before and the shocking and brutal things that are happening to the women there, and I’m willing to bet that many of Mac’s consumers hadn’t either. But I have now, and I’m sending money to the next cause I see to help them, and joining every movement to put pressure on the Mexican government that I can. So in a way this has raised awareness more than anything else ever could
I know you’ve all been talking about this situation and are not a bit happy. What do you think?
UPDATE: You can have your voice heard on this issue by signing an online petition which will be sent to Mac to pressurise them to donate more than the $100,000 amount they’ve pledged)
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Do you know of any other cosmetic companies there?
Danielle – i think that’s a great idea too!
I’ve often wondered about companies – like Penney’s etc – that produce products so cheaply. How do they manage to produce them so cheaply and pay their employees decent wages?
Hi Girls,
I just read the amnesty article and i’m appalled, I googled the name of the womens refuge thats in juarez and i’ve found a website for them and there is a donations through pay pal option on the website
I can post the link in the comments if anybody would like it. I for one wil be donating money instead of buying anything from this dispicable collection.
Gingie – yes absolutely put up the link
Danielle Thats a fantastic idea and I would def be interested in helping out in any way i could would love to do something for these poor women i still cant believe this sort of thing could be allowed in this day and age…
Will def be keeping an eye out for charitites that are helping these women the legit ones that is..
http://www.casa-amiga.org.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid=128
Theres the link, I know that the site is in spanish but google translate will help you navigate, it also lists all the good work that they do.
Great idea Danielle!
Aphrodite – J&J are the only “cosmetic” type company I’ve come across so far in my reading, the others mentioned have been automotive and electronic.
wow. Thanks for writing this, I hadn’t heard of any of this. I’ve never purchased a MAC product before, and I could live happily never purchasing one now. But if they were to engage meaningfully with this issue then I would consider it.
As everyone else is saying, the very least they can do at this stage is donate all proceeds and make the whole thing an awareness campaign.
Perhaps the awareness could lead to pressure being put on the brands and companies manufacturing in Juarez to ensure a fair wage and safe, dignified working conditions for their employees. British Beauty Blogger mentioned Johnson & Johnson, I’d be interested to know who else is based there.
Kellbell, Penney’s cannot sell clothes for 13 euro’s and pay a fair wage to the children who make the clothes.
A great book (fiction) in relation to Juarez is Roberto Bolano’s 2666. It is excellent and eye-opening.
I am not sure MAC can redeem my custom after this blunder, but as other’s have said on here, the companies that have factories in Juarez also deserve our outrage and approbation.
mademoiselle , I shouldn’t giggle in such a serious thread, but have a second look at your post and see the irony – “Penney’s cannot sell clothes for 13 euro’s and pay a fair wage to the [b]children[/b] who make the clothes.” There was some exposé done on Pennys before wasn’t there?
Also another aside, re: women in Juarez having to show used tampons. A few years ago it was the norm to ask when a female applicant’s last period was in an Indian call centre. I don’t know the situation these days.
Enough asides now! I wouldn’t have known anything about the issue in Juarez except for the post in Beaut.ie. I wouldn’t have even have looked at the MAC product names when browsing. So kudos to Beaut.ie.
Mssitting, the comment was intentional! So many high street clothes are made by children. It is very shocking to see a company as big as MAC being so unaware of corporate responsibility. I seriously doubt most companies pay more than lip service to the idea but to be so blatantly offensive in this day and age is mind boggling.
Mac you so deserve this
http://wshd.net/?p=824
mademoiselle – I’ll just hide my beetroot face for a while!
I agree – fair play for higlighting this issue. I will not buy anything from this MAC collection and prefer to donate to the shelter instead. Like many here, I read the full amnesty article with horror. It really makes you think of how lucky we are.
This really is ‘couldn’t make it up’ stuff. What’s next? Gaza lip gloss, inspired by the parched lips of women in queues for UN flour donations? Sort of reminds me of that alleged quote by Mariah Carey, where she supposedly said that starving Africans had great figures, but, like, she couldn’t be dealing with all those flies…..
I do think that donating ‘some’ of the profits of this line to relevant charities is an insulting response. Either donate ALL of the profits or pull the line AND make a substantial donation – substantial, that is, by the standards of a huge international cosmetics corporation. ‘Nuff to give the beauty business a bad name…
So my first idea was maybe we could organise a physical location for the beaut.ie swap shop for one night only. Everyone brings either make up or clothes that they don’t want anymore, except you pay maybe €5 to get in.You just leave whatever of yours you don’t want/use and browse everyone else’s stuff. Anything you want, you can take.
If you want to donate more when you get inside then that’s completely up to you.
If anyone is interested in doing that, and inviting all their friends, then I can contact stylenation and see if they would mind us piggybacking their Dakota night and if they do, we can find another location.
It might actually be a really nice night, for a great cause.
As an aside – should Mac products be allowed as part of the swop do you think? Would it be worth contacting Mac Ireland and seeing if they want to get involved with us or if they have anything to say about it at all?
I am so glad tht beaut.ie readers have way more compassion than certain blogs and that Kirstie Aphrodite et al stated their opinion. Horrified yet again by comments on other blogs such as ” they are only names”.
The claims by the Rodarte sisters about being inspired by the natural landscape seem disingenuous – but then again, I wonder whether they really had much to do with designing the range beyond picking their preferred colour palatte?
It’s a MAC product which the sisters were payed a chunk of money to endorse with their brand name – they were foolish and thoughtless to sign off on the names and are right to apologise for their stupidity.
But MAC went well beyond stupidity by embracing and fully endorsing the theme of death in Mexico to sell makeup. Dunno if you’ve seen the promo picture for the range, it’s a photograph of a girl wearing a traditional Spanish/Mexican shawl, all in white (shroudlike) and made up to look like a CORPSE.
If this were in a fantasy context we could romanticise it, as with the gothic looks that were inspired by Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Sleepy Hollow. But the collection glibly references elements of a horrific reality; Quinceanara, Factory, Juarez, Badlands, Ghost town, Sleepwalker; young girls and women, downtrodden, endangered, dismissively raped and murdered. It will never be cool for a company to use women who work 60h a week in a factory for minimum wage and gets killed by virtue of geography as “inspiration” in an attempt to sell itself as cool and edgy.
Screw you MAC. I am outraged and I expect better.
Trilby – fantastic comment
Trilby basicaly sums it up. This just seems too much to have been a simple accident “factory” “ghost town”. It’s disgusting that corperate money spinners are stooping SO low just for some extra publicity, and $100,000?? for a company that big,$100,000 is small change. The only good that came from this is that light has been shed on the issue, not that I think for a second that was MAC’s primary goal.
I don’t even know what to say I’m so shocked. How could they have used those names. I know many advertising campaigns and magazine editorials like to be edgy and shocking but those just goes too far. It’s ugly and tasteless.
Wow – that’s incredibly tasteless. And to echo the comments above I can’t quite believe that something like that would have been missed by PR and everyone else at Mac. Sounds like a publicity stunt, and no matter how good for the women of Juarez that is now, the fact that they would use people in the most horrific situations in order to become more profitable is pretty damning for them as a company imho.
I actually had to read that Amnesty report for college and it was horrific. Sounded very similar to something the Taliban would implement tbh.
I’ve never really warmed to Mac and I definitely won’t now.
I’m shocked! For lack of better words may I reiterate – Christ on a BIKE?!
Are MAC withdrawing, they can’t be going ahead espicially with that promo picture?! I don’t understand how it got to this stage without one person raising the alarm?
I suppose the silver lining is the unintentional raising of awareness for Juarez, which ashamedly, I knew nothing of until now
Excellent comment Trilby. I’ve heard about Juarez over and over again during the years and it just keeps going on – tbh it seems that unless there isn’t a market for the goods produced there, nothing will change – and the same goes for factories all around the world with indentured labour and small children making cheap goods that we snap up then throw away. I hope that the memory of this publicity stunt doesn’t fade away in a couple of weeks.
Trilby – well said. The picture really says it all about their intentions doesn’t it?
From reading the Amnesty report the exploitation by the factories is only a small part of this problem. If they pulled out – which they seem to be doing in favour of China with even lower wages – the killings and brutality and rape won’t stop.
It is great that so many want to help by supporting a local shelter or charity but I think it would be great if we could also support a campaign to make the Mexican authorities take action.
Trilby – very well said. I had seen the picture but have no idea how to post one in a comment. The girl does look like a corpse or a ghost with her dark sunken eyes and grey skin. They had a clear idea in mind, they knew exactly what they were doing but stupidly they thought their cusotmers would think what a fabulous range and how clever to take inspiration from factory girls. Wise up MAC. Someone needs a good kick up the arse for signing off on this.
Glamazon – I think you are right, donations and funding will help but they will not stop the problem. Campaigns to raise awareness and to force the govt to do something to stop this will be far more effective long term.
If anyone wants to post a pic just put up the link to the image and if one of us is around we will convert it for you
Daiseeboo – I am having a look to see what campaigns there are out ther. There was an American group called Code Pink – women who campaign against global issues – but their Juaraz campaign is listed as a ‘past action’. Have just asked on Twitter if anyone is aware of a specific ongoing campaign.
This is shocking. Could this have been done deliberately by MAC to get publicity? Those poor women as if their situation was’nt bad enough, MAC are taking advantage of them to make a quick buck.
Danielle i think thats a great idea I would be more than willing to help you out i have held events in the past for charities i think thats a great idea to help … I was trying to do some research (limited mind you hadnt got time to do an extensive search as work kept getting inthe way) on it on the net and it seems until this ‘PR Blunder’ came along it is almost as if the world has accepted this is the way it is… Except for a few charitites there seems to be no major campaigns going on
I am so outraged by this to the point where i felt ill looking at my make up last night I would really love to organise something to help out and even just create more awareness!!
Tasteless campaign, yes, absolutely. But PR gaffe? No. It’s a PR stroke of genius. It has got everyone talking. Who wouldn’t wanted to own the disgraced polish Juarez now as it is now become an infamous product. MAC have achieved what they wanted to achieve. And it has highlighted the problems in Juarez. As Aphrodite said, she had never heard of it before, neither had I , and I bet neither had most people. Now we all do. And now we can do something about it.
I’m shocked by how many people are shocked this is happening. Really people – did you think the world of sweat shops, abuse of women and children and child labour were left behind in the last century. Things won’t change as long as the Western World keep buying cheap fast moving goods and I can’t see that stopping anytime soon.
UPDATE: You can have your voice heard on this issue by signing an online petition which will be sent to Mac to pressurise them to donate more than the $100,000 amount they’ve pledged)
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/macrodarte/
Im absolutely horrified albeit (i do NOT mean to sound horrible) disapointed because i am unble to buy this range im so upset though donated to juarez
Thanks for alrting us to this