Media holds great power to influence society, sometimes they can over -expose news or do things that end in a great controversy which becomes even BIGGER news. Either way, all media has the responsibility to their content and must be careful of what they expose or say to the world.
A great example of this is found with American Apparel.
On October 29- 30, Hurricane Sandy hit the mid- Atlantic and Northeast U.S in a "Frankenstorm" with affected millions of people. Yet one company didn't seem to be bothered by it, in fact they found it as a marketing opportunity.... yep, American Apparel.
With their "trendy" clothes waiting to be sold, American Apparel posted an ad called the "Sandy Sale" saying, "In case you're bored during the storm, get 20% off everything in the next 36 hours!"
I love sales on clothes, but this is not something I would splurge on. Even the states that this sale applied to were limited to Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. After posting this ad on the internet, a great wave of angered tweets hit twitter as they criticized American Apparel's in-sensitive marketing move.
If we could turn back time, what could American Apparel do differently? How about donating funds for aid and needs for the people affected, or yeah you can hold a sale on clothes AFTER the storm and use the proceeds to support families who were affected. But wait! There's more! Why not donate some "trendy clothes" to people who were affected by the storm and barely have clothes to spare?
There are so many ways that American Apparel could have been patriotic to their country by helping out, but I guess money can make the biggest companies blind.
For those who did splurge on the sale.... I guess the gratification you get is saving some money in your pocket and supporting American Apparel's "sweat shop free" clothing.
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