VOGUE India

On Monday, September 1, 2008, there was an article in the Business Day section which was of interest to me, as a Public Relations major. Vogue India designed a fashion shoot that was supposed to draw in a new audience, but unfortunately it failed miserably. The pictorial featured a young child being carried by an older women, both in dirty clothing, yet the child is wearing a Fendi bib; an entire family is squeezing to fit onto one motorcycle to get into town and yet the woman is holding an Hermes Birkin bag; a toothless man who cannot even afford shoes for his feet is holding a Burberry umbrella. The goal and the message that was meant to be perceived was: "fashion is for everyone, not only the rich man".

The middle and lower class of India viewed things differently. They saw this as a mockery of their lifestyle and meant to be a joke for the upper class, who are more loyal readers of the magazine. This innocently intended campaign is now a reputation crisis, which the PR department of Vogue must quickly control as to not lose readership. I expect an apology will follow and possibly some showmanship of goodwill to the people who have been offended, or in a worst case scenario a very expensive re-shoot.

This is a good example of PR reputation management in action and as a PR major, I will be taking notes.