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Why We’re Bothered Bloggers #RodarteMAC

Posted on | July 18, 2010 | 5 Comments

Let’s take a quick look at the Rodarte MAC campaign…

A very striking visual indeed. Eerily beautiful hollow smoky sockets with velvety pale skin and deathly nude lips. An image that I would have loved to have in my own portfolio had I not discovered the shockingly real inspiration behind the look. Some bloggers have pointed out the haunting outline of an invisible woman in the foreground and linked it to the thousands of women who have vanished without a trace in the Mexican region. Some have even gone so far as to say that the watermarked effect in the photo looks uncannily like blood, as does the blue/red staining of the mineralise blusher.

Now, art is art is art and everyone knows that artists have a creative licence of sorts. MAC and Rodarte however are not artists. Yes they are creative teams but they have a certain responsibility as global brands to present themselves in a certain way, being mindful and respectful of opinions, cultures and feelings. With great power comes great responsibility. I find it hard to believe that MAC and Rodarte generally believed themselves to be presenting a taboo in an exciting fashion forward way. Some-one must have realised the implications… or maybe not.

If I were MAC, and I will not pretend to have the knowledge and experience of a global brand leader but at least I have some common sense, I would have seen this collection as an opportunity to do some good in the world. This collection could be celebrated as a way of raising awareness towards the awful goings on in Juarez. Money could have been raised for charity, aid could have been brought and international akgnowledgement of a serious problem could have been achieved. Instead, the very same range has brought fury to the world and shame on two brands that were previously highly respected. It is too late now, my dear MAC, to offer a ‘portion’ of the takings to charity. It is all or nothing as it should have been from the beginning.

I’ll now hand over to Emma who has some background info on Juarez… K xx

Emma: I’d heard of Juárez, Mexico a few years ago during my time at Uni. It was in a lecture on crime and exploitative industrialisation in third world countries… which probably give you a good idea about where this is going…

Juárez is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and this fact is widely accepted to be due to the influx of huge multi-national companies (or Maquilaradora) infesting towns foreign to the brand’s original nationality. Reasons for this are purely economic; they have incredibly cheap ground rent and the work force in the surrounding areas need money as they aspire to better or stereotypically ‘western’ standards of living. With these huge waves of human traffic into cities, the infrastructures rarely hold up and, as has happened in Juárez, slums develop and crime sores.

Currently there is an estimated population of 1.5million in the city and last year it was deemed one of the most violent areas outside an official war zone. There’s severe drug trafficking and a constant war between to two biggest cartels; The Juárez and the Sinaloa. However drug trafficking is not what has disgusted most people when considering the brand collaboration from MAC, it’s the femicides (female homicides) that have left thousands of women dead (many of which were travelling to or from these huge factories at the time of their murder), with over 1000 of these murders unsolved. For this reason the city is now one of the biggest centres for protest against sexual violence throughout Mexico. Now, consider that the names of the MAC range involve titles such as ‘Factory’ and ‘Ghosttown’… nuff said…

If you this problem is something that strikes a chord with you then I’ve been recommended a fabulous book written by Teresa Rodrigues; The Daughters of Juárez. It disturbingly goes into how these unsolved murders have boomed over the last few years and how police and prominent citizens of the city have been widely involved in hampering investigations into the girls’ deaths. In hindsight maybe MAC at the girls behind Rodarte should have taken this book home for some bed time reading before they decided to go ahead with mineralized powders, laced with blood red powder viens… or photographed a deathly model with the shadow of a women in front of her.

It’s altogether very sinister and definitely something that they should have seriously rethought in their branding…  they would have done well with the line if their launched it as a charitable collaboration, however this seems to me to be a 100% money spinner…

Bad move MAC. Poor choice ‘well-travelled’ Rodarte.

Read some more posts on the scandal;

the beauty mouth

bangsandabun

british beauty blogger

katie chutzpah

mizzworthy

Click here for more information about this from Amnesty International…

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