American Apparel used this photo in an ad for the 4th of July:

[Are_grits_groceries]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-american-apparel-challenger-20140703-story.html

Oy! Just Oy.
Smh......

[giftedgirl77]

1. Wow, that is fucked up.

[yuiyoshida]

50. totally this..

omg..

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Oy vey..

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Did their young and ignorant "social media manager"

bother to check where the image came from or did he/she just grab it from Google images or some such place without trying to find out anything about it? At a minimum they are supposed to check images for copyright before publishing them. Seems to me they had to be both ignorant and lazy.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. yep!

[Cirque du So-What]

8. Looks like a corp in serious need of an extreme makeover

Removing the CEO was a a good place to start, but it looks like some of his hirelings need the boot as well.

[customerserviceguy]

49. I'm sure their "social media manager"

probably had the same kind of education that the average website proofreader for ABC News, etc. has had. The quickie way is seems to be the norm these days...

[JaneyVee]

4. oh god, i love american apparel too.

Shop there all the time. Hoping this was a young intern who has no idea behind the context of that pic.

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. Dog Charney's revenge. nt

(I was going to correct the autocorrect, but I decided it was right for once)

[Cooley Hurd]

12. According to American Apparel, the employee was "international"

https://twitter.com/americanapparel/status/484834097051598848/photo/1

...and too young to know of the tragedy. I was born after the Boer War (and not born in South Africa or GB) but I know about it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Love this twitter comment.

You need to bring that outsourced job back to America or take the word American out of your company name. Seriously

if that kid had been born IN 1986, he/she would be 28.
Seems strange to me that someone that young, or younger, has the power to place image ads with no oversight.

[Tree-Hugger]

37. +1 nt

[jberryhill]

24. Happy Independence Day!

Paul Revere, shooting them redcoats!

[ladyVet]

53. "international" and "too young to know of the tragedy"

Yeah.

Smells like bullshit to me.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Crazy stupid.

[MineralMan]

7. Dumbass social media kiddie did a Google search

for fireworks and found that. Born after the Challenger disaster, he or she had no freaking idea what the photo was. Companies that hire kids to handle major social media publicity are really, really stupid. They allow people with no knowledge of history at all to promote their brand.

This is the result. Social media is always a disaster in the making for companies that consider it a throw-away. And that's why situations like this come up again and again. Putting kiddies in charge isn't a great idea, unless there is some sort of serious review process for anything that's going to go public. They just have no sense of history or knowledge base from which to work. If it's on Google and the image can be ripped, why not use it?

But the kiddies work cheap. That's what matters, I guess.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. They should also have trained said social media kiddie

to research any images they use because there could be copyright issues (as well as hideous breaches of decorum). Maybe the kiddies are proficient at the mechanics of the various social media outlets, but that's about it. The weird stuff that turns up on some business' Twitter feeds (often sounding like people thinking out loud among their friends after three beers) is evidence that whoever is handling these functions understands process only, and not content.

[MineralMan]

14. Exactly. Since I'm in the website content business,

I tend to encounter these air-headed social media people fairly frequently. They come in both sexes, but all appear to think of corporate communications as just an extension of their personal social media world. I try not to accept content contracts from businesses that have one of these kiddies in charge of their Internet presence. In my experience, it rarely works out well.

The internet content world is just chock-full of people who have little to no understanding of how the real world actually operates. When they pull off one of this kind of horrific mistakes, they just shrug their shoulders. It's amazing. Sometimes I despair. I also sometimes have a serious conversation with the owner of such businesses, and warn them about the consequences of allowing people to represent them online without supervision. It's incredibly frustrating at times.

[enlightenment]

25. This is the most troubling aspect -

When they pull off one of this kind of horrific mistakes, they just shrug their shoulders.

I've run into this quite a bit while teaching. There seems to be a growing inability to grasp that something they don't see as meaningful could possibly have meaning to anyone else. An empathy gap.

I don't understand it - but I know I don't like it at all.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

45. So, let me get this straight. You are hired to write content for a website. I get that part...

But then you are going beyond the scope of that for which you were hired to get into other aspects of the business operations of your clients?

What does it matter to you that they might have a 'kiddie' running their social media arm or that said kiddie might be screwing things up - in your opinion. What does that have to do with taking a subject and writing content about it, which is what you were ostensibly hired to do?

[MineralMan]

47. No. I was not hired to do that. I was making a presentation to the client.

I choose my website content contracts carefully, and turn down as many as I accept. I'm not working on the client's dime until we have an agreement that includes the approach to the project.

As for getting into other aspects of the client's business operations, I don't do that unless they request me to do that. Often, they do, because a website often gets into how a business operates as part of the content. Sometimes, businesses change things based on my suggestions, which are always based on best practices.

My work is part of an overall project. I'm just the writer. But, I don't do websites for businesses that engage in questionable practices, and I don't write content for businesses that I believe are taking the wrong approach to their business' Internet strategy. The reason for that is because I don't want to get involved in the back and forth that sometimes requires.

I get paid for my work by the website designer I work with, not directly by the client. We work as a team, though, and we both have to agree on the contract, as does the client. Meetings with clients prior to the contract are gratis on both my part and the web designer's part. We're there to sell our concept and to evaluate whether or not we want the job.

We turn down as many jobs as we accept, for a wide range of reasons.

I hope that clarifies things for you. If you want more information about my approach to website content, there's a link in my signature line that will give you that information, along with links to sites I've written. I'm not soliciting work, either. I have plenty of work already.

[DBoon]

16. You get what you pay for

You want cheap/free interns to do your work, what you get will be worth every penny

[MineralMan]

19. It's not just interns. Really. Companies with actual

social media staffs who get paid salaries do similar stupid crap. The entire social media industry is made up of kiddies who recently graduated from some college and who know how to post crap on social media. They have no clue about what they're doing, for the most part, but companies have bought into the idea that they need social media to survive.

Most social media campaigns are bullshit and do nothing for the business. The exceptions are in businesses that have a very young demographic as their primary customers and who are in the entertainment, food, or club business. For everyone else, money would be better spent elsewhere.

There are some companies, however, that use social media effectively. Some auto manufacturers make excellent use of it. I won't mention any names, lest I be accused of being anti-labor once again.

[SheilaT]

51. The idea that a person or business

absolutely MUST be using social media at every possible turn is not only insidious, but is everywhere.

I was recently at a writers conference and one panel was about how writers absolutely positively must be using social media if they have any hope whatsoever to sell any books other than those their relatives might buy. And the panelist most enthusiastic about social media proclaimed at the very outset, "Last year I would have told you that you must be on (here she named some social media thing I'd never heard of) but this year you absolutely must be on (something else, maybe Twitter)".

The main thing I thought was, If you're spending so much time every day on social media, updating your FB account and sending a Tweet 17 times a day, when the hell do you have time to write?

There's also a fallacy out there that only about seventeen people on the planet aren't on social media, but that's not true. It's not even true that everyone in a first world country does social media. It's a tight little box that contains a bunch of people, but far from everyone. And I'm less and less convinced every day that those who spend a lot of time doing twitter and the like are at all well informed.

[csziggy]

52. The worst thing a company can do is set up a Facebook page

And never update it.

I know of one business that set up their page four years ago. All they have is the business name and address. They've never posted anything on the page. They have one "Like."

The really bad thing is that the business moved last winter. The new address is still not on the Facebook page, even though I mentioned to the owner six months ago that it would be a good idea. You know, an announcement of the move and directions, since the new location is out in the boonies. How much time would that take her?

[former9thward]

40. It was not an cheap or free intern.

It was their social media manager. Probably making six figures at a company like that.

[SheilaT]

10. Even if the person responsible

had been born after the accident, I'm somewhat surprised he'd never seen it before. Or at least didn't have a strong sense that whatever this was, it was not fireworks.

This is one of the best examples I think I've ever come across as to why living memory (meaning what those still alive can remember) is so important, and how much we lose when there is no one left who remembers something. In our era we have all sorts of recordings of many kinds, which helps a lot. But still, the actual memory of whatever is powerful in a way that's hard to pass on.

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. "Institutional memory" is SO important, you are right.

Businesses which have a high turnover do not do well for that reason.

American Apparel apparently has had a lot of problems.
Even tho most of the clothing IS made in Los Angeles, they got into trouble for using un documented workers.

The "international" worker who used the Challenger pic was mostl ikely from India, where businesses outsource their media jobs.

So, all around, I would not be happy as a customer of this company.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Ya might think a "media manager"...

even in her 20's would think to ask what the picture was before using it.

Didn't anyone find out while looking for the rights to use it as an ad?

(They did check, didn't they?)

[MineralMan]

15. It's not always a "her." Not by any means.

I recently turned down a website content contract for a company. It was a B2B website, doing business with well-established companies in an industrial environment. I showed up for a client meeting where I would present my content concept. The person representing the company was a guy about 24 years old. His first question was about what kind of music should start playing over their Flash animation when a visitor landed on the website.

That was the end of the meeting. I told him what I thought of Flash animations with musical backgrounds on B2B websites and explained that I didn't think we'd work well together. Then I said goodbye. A couple of days later, the owner of the business called me and asked what had happened. I explained why B2B companies that targeted industrial clients probably needed a more serious website content plan than the one the guy I met had in mind. Being the blunt sort of person that I am, I explained it in no uncertain terms.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. True, it's just that all the ones I've met..

so far have been "her".

And most are clueless. I would think it goes with the age, not the gender.

[MineralMan]

21. Age and educational focus, I think.

There are some young people in the social media and Internet business who actually understand how to do things, but there are many, many more who do not.

Social media is proving to be fairly useless for a wide range of business types. Those businesses are beginning to get it, and are turning to other methods on the Internet. I suspect there is about to be a dramatic reduction in the size of the social media business. I'm already seeing some social media companies shrinking and losing contracts.

Social media can be effective for some types of business and when used appropriately for their target demographics. That's mostly not being done, though, and old-school social media types are still hyping their ideas to unsuspecting businesses.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Oh, brother....

I'm not crazy about most Flash animations in general, and I can't imagine anything more irritating and off-putting to a business person looking for a product or service than opening up a potential vendor's website and being immediately treated to some annoying animated whatsis accompanied by loud alt-rock music. If your business involves music or other entertainment your website should of course offer samples of your "product." Otherwise, no. If I run a John Deere service center and I'm looking for a company that sells tractor parts I do not want music and cartoons. I want a catalog and price list for tractor parts.

[MineralMan]

30. What? You don't want rilly, rilly kool tractor parts?

[Throd]

33. I've found that too many web developers create sites to impress themselves and their friends.

The pesky needs of the client are seen as an annoyance.

[MineralMan]

34. Indeed, that's true.

The real test of a business website is to generate increased business. If it does that, it's a successful website. If it does not, then the company's money has been wasted. Websites must be designed with the target audience in mind at all times, and that audience is made up of prospective customers, not website designers.

People come to websites to get information that helps them make decisions.

[Throd]

38. I had a website designed for my business that was the exact opposite of my needs.

It was guaranteed to chase away the people I want as clients in the initial three seconds. When I first opened it I was so appalled that I sat there with my mouth agape for a good minute.

[MineralMan]

39. That happens far more often than you'd suspect.

I hope the problem has been corrected by now. I don't design websites. I work with a website designer. My part of the process is writing the text content that appears on the website. Our process includes the business owner at every stage, and we explain exactly why we are doing everything we are doing. No client of ours has ever been surprised at one of our websites, except sometimes when the end results are better than they anticipated in terms of increased business, which happens often.

We don't do flashy, glamorous websites. We do websites that generate business.

[hedgehog]

20. Would we be talking about American Apparel if they had chosen

an innocuous photo? I have no idea if the aphorism that there is no such thing as bad publicity is true or not, but I bet someone at AA thinks it's true.

[whistler162]

22. Well to quote the film Backdraft.....

"See that glow in the corner of your eye? Its your career dissipation light . It just went into high gear! "

[hatrack]

27. Huh?

[clarice]

28. I can't believe it !! really???? nt

[CBGLuthier]

29. Another cold shock of water for those who think everything matters forever.

And what those of us of a certain age hold sacred does not mean two shits to those who follow us.


I can live with it.

[Throd]

32. Interesting take on insensitivity, ignorance and bad taste.

If that image was used to promote some jerk-off indie band it might be appropriate for the intended audience. For a major apparel retailer with "American" right there in the name it is quite the blunder.

[MineralMan]

35. That's funny, right there.

Truly.

[alphafemale]

41. Next years graduating seniors were around 4 yrs old on 09/11/2011

They have no real personal memories of the event. Just shadows and stories.

Yes. The image should have been checked for where it came from.

And so obviously NOT a firework. I am guessing the person did an image search for "bombs bursting in air" or some such.

[madokie]

31. tone deaf

stupid to boot

[Stargazer09]

42. Disgusting

That was a completely stupid thing to do. Even after all these years, I remember the absolute shock and horror of that day.

I am proud of the fact that my 14-year-old daughter immediately recognized the image. At least I know that she would not have made the same mistake.

[lunatica]

43. Looks like an add that could be created by ISIS or Al Qaeda

Like the Taliban blowing up the Buddha statues in Afghanistan before the Bush wars.

[Liberal_in_LA]

44. whoa

[Ilsa]

46. Eventually designers will be using swastikas in

geometric fabric print design because they like the 90° angles and linear quality of it.

[TeeYiYi]

48. With so many choices, how can a person decide?...

TYY