All it took was one upset blogger to start a firestorm of backlash that would lead to the cancellation of M.A.C.’s Rodarte makeup line. Slated for launch in September and highly anticipated in the fashion and beauty worlds, the line was inspired by a road trip the Rodarte designers took through Texas, and included a nail polish called “Juarez,” after an impoverished, violence-plagued town in Mexico. Products called “Ghost Town” and “Factory” were likewise met with disapproval. After M.A.C. and Rodarte apologized for the Internet-identified gaffe, and then promised to set up a charity initiative to help victims in Juarez, and then decided to change the names of the products in the collection, the makeup company has decided not to ship the line at all.
M.A.C. announced the cancellation in a statement posted to the company’s Facebook page. The charity initiatives are still on, but both Rodarte and M.A.C. still seem quite worried about all the offense they feel they have caused. The statement:
Out of respect for the people of Mexico, the women and girls of Juarez and their families, as well as our MAC Mexican staff and colleagues, MAC has made the decision not to ship the MAC Rodarte limited edition makeup collection. This decision will have no impact on MAC’s commitment to donate all of its projected global profits from this collection to local and international groups that work to improve the lives of the women and girls of Juarez. We are currently conducting due diligence to ensure we donate to organizations with a proven record of directly supporting the women and girls of Juarez. MAC and Rodarte are deeply and sincerely sorry and we apologize to everyone we offended. We have listened very closely to the feedback of concerned global citizens. We are doing our very best to right this wrong. The essence of MAC is to give back and care for the community and Rodarte is committed to using creativity for positive social change. We are grateful for the opportunity to use what we have learned to raise awareness on this important issue.
M.A.C. seems to have done absolutely everything it could to smooth things over, but every time they make a new decision about how bad they feel, it just calls attention to the original problem. And the product may still appear in some magazines, which could have shot it long before M.A.C. decided not to ship it. Meanwhile, hey, lots of things can be really offensive if we want them to be!
One word. One nail polish. One blog post. Thousands of online comments. Now this.
MAC and Rodarte collaboration cancelled [Elle UK]
