I read this, and I think what Target is doing now is damage control. They set up on Facebook and MySpace, and have members of those communities recommend merchandise from Target in return for rewards, but don't want anyone to know that those are paid recommendations. When someone thinks that's unethical and posts about it on Target's Facebook or MySpace, her posts are either archived or removed, presumably to keep the secret. Once that is found to be impossible to do, they spin it by saying it was a mistake and worded incorrectly, and then they change the wording to make themselves look good.
My point for making this post is that I got a couple of emails from someone saying she is from Lane Bryant, thanking me for posting about their Right Fit jeans, and wanting to reward me with a holiday gift, just send me your mailing address so we can thank you. Well, I'm naturally leery about that kind of thing, and I didn't respond, and trashed the email.
Then about a week later, I got another email telling me about a free mp3 I could download:
Right Fit has a new song, I Can’t Believe It’s Me!, that invites women to celebrate themselves and love their bodies. You can download this song to your blog!
Now, I don't have a problem with advertising, how else do we learn about new products and decide if we want to try them? I also don't mind linking to websites that I've found that have awesome clothes and products for fat women. But for some reason, and I haven't quite figured out why, this just kind of makes me uneasy.
I don't have anything against Lane Bryant, per se, other than the fact that they don't use larger models for their clothes, using the excuse that even fat women don't want to see their clothes on larger models (and if that's really the case, why does Catherine's use larger models and sell as many clothes as they do?). About the only thing I ever buy from LB is slacks, because I know how they are going to fit me, and I know how they are going to look on me. As for tops and dresses, I won't buy from LB because I can't tell from looking at a top or a dress on a thin model how it's going to look on me (we're talking catalogs/websites here, I don't like their stores much, and that's a whole 'nother rant). I have a humongous rack of doom and hips that don't quit, not to mention thunder thighs that make a storm pale in comparison, so how can I tell what it's going to look like on me when the model isn't even close to my shape or size? Ain't happening, folks. That's one of the reasons I won't download their song to my blog, another is that I listened to it and I don't really care for it (I'm really not into the hip hop style of music, and the lyrics seem rather repetitious to me). Now if they had wanted to do that song more on the order of Free Your Mind by En Vogue, I would have jumped on it in a heartbeat (love that song, can ya tell).
I know I'm not the only blog out here who has talked about Right Fit jeans, so I'm assuming I'm not the only one who got this request? Does anyone have a different perspective on this? I'm open for suggestions.
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