Posted on 01/05/2024 7:12:17 AM PST by Twotone
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is taking backlash for his recent comments about the brand’s adoption of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies — which he said led to the use of “unhealthy,” “sickly,” and “not inspirational” models to promote the brand.
Wilson, who left the company in 2015, but remains its largest individual shareholder, complained that with the move to include models he deemed “unhealthy,” the company was moving toward promoting diversity over health and fitness.
“They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody. And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody,” he explained during an interview with Forbes. “You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”
Joanna Schwartz, a marketing professor at Georgia College & State University, told Newsweek that the brand’s success was in part derived from its refusal to be “everything to everybody,” explaining that instead, they worked hard to “super-serve their core” — wealthy, fit, and usually younger women.
“That has made Lululemon an aspirational brand that represents very high-quality, expensive goods that are rarely significantly discounted. It’s also a lifestyle brand that is really captured by some of the word representations they create around their brand ideas, focus on intentionality, oneness and yoga,” she added.
Schwartz went on to suggest that remaining in that mindset would be counterproductive, however — and suggested apparently without evidence that Wilson had also been opposed to including models of diverse races and ethnicities.
“He clearly sees Lululemon as a brand where a large percentage of the population isn’t welcome. In light of that kind of opposition, it’s really impressive that the brand has pushed against that to include a greater racial and ethnic diversity, and by addressing the brand’s formerly long-standing sizeism, which includes a focus almost exclusively on women’s sizes 00-10,” she said.
Wilson has triggered the woke mob on at least one previous occasion — when he said that not all women were built for the company’s yoga pants — which resulted in him stepping down as chairman of the board in 2013.
no fat models allowed
Time for Mr. Wilson to sell his shares.
This is good. Most businesses should not try to be “everything to everybody”.
Doing so is how you end up with the “body positive”, “gender affirming”, “inclusive” BS we have today. Have the strength to say your business is X, and does not support Y. If one does it, the screaming mob will scream. If many do it, we win.
High end merchandise that isn’t discounted…..except for the stuff stolen by looters. Some of that high end merchandise is being sported by ghetto queens.
I’ve noticed 2 things in commercials lately
1: they use grossly overweight- morbidly obese women mostly in a lof of their commercials
2: if the women aren’t morbidly obese, then they are tipping the scale of being butt ugly- it’s like they went out of their way to reject normal looking folks, and to find people as ugly as possible (being ugly isn’t a bad thing of course- folks can’t help how they look mostly, but the folks they find are slobs too- it’s like the commercials are forcing their “anti-establishment agenda” on the nation, and finding people who dress freakishly, or like slobs and are really unkempt to push their warped agenda on the nation.)
Shoulda said 3 things
3: commercials are getting really preachy about lgbtq now too.
How long before the ,eft start their agenda of hate by producing antisemite commercials?
Truth. Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
if their core demographic is the size 0, Bently driving Black Amex crowd..
How long before these people start seeing 250lb, fake Gucci T-shirt, knock off Luis Vuitton bag people wearing Real Lulu and dump the brand entirely?
I’m hoping that businesses are beginning to learn that shoving their agendasdown peoples throats is real,y hurting their bottom line. That they will fire their woke advisors, and begin getting back to good wholesome commercials and understand that that is the model most Americans want, not the slobbily dressed, grossly overweight, loud and obnoxious models we see today. Hopefully we can get back to advertising that praises the product and exp,ains the products Instead of preaching some woke nonsense
Lululemon should never use overweight models for the same reason McDonalds doesn’t use any random Big Mac in their ads. The ads are supposed to be idealized/perfectionist representations of your product, not realistic ones.
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