Saturday Night Live can do it. And the late night talk shows have been having a field day doing it. But Harry Rosen found out this week that talking about Donald Trump—even just to make fun of him—can get you in trouble.
Late last week, select customers on the mailing list of the up-market mens’ fashion retailer started receiving a promotional postcard—either in their mail boxes or inboxes—inviting the recipient to Harry Rosen’s exclusive Private Sale. The card showed the bombastic Presidential candidate in front of a microphone with the caption “If not for Harry’s Private Sale, I’d wall off Canada too.” The wall is an allusion to Trump’s campaign pledge to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a suggestion that has infuriated many and brought accusations of xenophobia and racism.
Early this week, the complaints started rolling in. CEO Larry Rosen was expecting a few, but not like this. They kept coming and coming. By Wednesday, Rosen felt compelled to post a response, which was an apology—but only of sorts.
“We are mocking the absurdity of Trump’s xenophobic proposal to build a wall between the USA and a neighbouring country. It certainly was not meant as an endorsement of Donald Trump or his politics—and should not be viewed as such,” he said in the statement.
“If you were offended, my sincere apologies but it is my hope that given the context of this advertisement you will recognize it for what it is and not read into it what it isn’t.”
Speaking with Marketing Thursday, Rosen stressed he was not sorry for creating or sending the advertisement. “We’re not apologizing for the card, we think the card is funny. We think it is topical. There is no apology for that. What we are apologizing for is if we offended you,” he said.
“We really do regret offending people, we are not in the offending business,” he said. “But we don’t regret using political humour in our cards, we don’t think what we did was in bad taste. We think it reflects Canadian values.”
And while the postcard drew many angry emails, Rosen said the positive response has been nearly equal. “I have to say that for every email we’ve got complaining, we’ve got one saying it’s brilliant.”
The ad was the work of Toronto-based creatives Bob Goulart and Dave Hamilton who’ve worked on Harry Rosen creative for years away from their agency Grip.
Harry Rosen has a long history of using politicians in its ads and on occasion ruffling feathers in doing so. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office was reportedly unhappy when Harper was used in one such execution.
Rosen said one of his favourites, which was also “highly misinterpreted,” was created shortly after the Canadian government of Jean Chretien refused to join George Bush’s “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq. The card showed Bush talking to his dog Barney and telling him they’d have to forgive Canada because the Private Sale was on.
“That one got lots of protest because people thought we were supporting Bush,” said Rosen. “We were obviously satirizing the ludicrousness of the situation.”
“It’s about highlighting the absurdity of these things that are happening in media and amplifying that absurdity, which is what we did with this Trump piece,” said Goulart. “Sometimes people don’t like the joke and that just comes with telling a joke.”
Trump’s run for President seemed so outlandish to Goulart and Hamilton that when they first came up with the idea a few months ago, they wondered if he would even be a relevant issue when it came time to send it out. But he is and that clearly is making some people anxious. “The longer this guy becomes a looming threat to the political system in the U.S. the more sensitive people become,” said Goulart.
Rosen said the stream of complaints is slowing now and he expected the total negative email count to be between 300 and 400 once everything calmed down. “I’ve been collecting all the emails and sending them on to Bob [Goulart],” he joked.
Every emailed complaint is getting a note back explaining the intent of the postcard and in most cases people have replied saying while they disagree with it, they understand it, said Rosen. “Their initial threats of never shopping at Harry Rosen again have been rescinded.”
The controversial card also doesn’t appear to have been detrimental to sales in anyway. “Business has been extremely strong, it’s been one of our best Private Sales ever,” he said. “In terms of advertising principles, it did what it was supposed to do.”
As for the political power of Trump, Rosen isn’t taking that seriously either. “My personal belief is that he will fade soon and we’ll have a normal presidential race.”
