Federated drops FCUK brand
US department store bows to consumer pressure over fragrance ads
October 11 2003
The FCUK brand faces a conservative backlash in the US after a pressure group targeted advertising for its new licenced fragrance range.
Federated Department Stores is dropping French Connections’s FCUK branded clothing, as well as the new fragrances, from 400 stores including its Macy’s and Bloomingdales chains, after the American Family Association pressure group raised objections about the ad campaign for the fragrances.
The advert shows a young couple and uses the slogan [i]Scent to Bed[/i] with the male and female versions branded [i]FCUK him[/i] and [i]FCUK her[/i]. The AFA has objected to the campaign, which has appeared in a number of teenage magazines, and has widened its protest to include the implications of the FCUK slogan which appears on the clothing ranges and other products.
The AFA has encouraged its members to protest to retailers stocking the fragrance, giving details of company phone numbers and publishing templates for letters of complaint. Among those identified by the AFA are Target, which stocks FCUK products including the fragrances at its Marshall Field’s department store chain, and Federated.
Carol Sanger, Federated’s vice president of corporate affairs, told a US news agency: “We simply did not feel it was appropriate for our stores. The current season’s merchandise really pushed the envelope on their product lines.
“The national advertising campaign was really over the top in terms of lack of taste, and that has really precipitated people paying attention to this line, which is not really that big to begin with.”
The fragrances are licensed and manufactured by Zirh International, a division of Japanese cosmetics group Shiseido, which signed a worldwide licensing deal with French Connection at the end of last year.
The Zirh deal does not include the UK and Ireland, where FCUK has a fragrance licensing deal in place with Boots.
The huge success of the FCUK brand in the UK means that it has lost some of its power to shock on its home territory. However, a judge recently dismissed a female juror who was wearing clothing featuring the brand.
