You'll Like the Way Your Dirty Hippies Look, I Guarantee It

A lot of folks today were expressing disgust with Men's Wearhouse, a national men's clothing chain, because of this picture from an Oakland store (courtesy of Matt O'Brien):

To be fair this could just be an overzealous local store manager who thinks he can buy favor with the #Occupy movement by showing solidarity. To my knowledge there are no reports of a nationwide closure of their stores, nor is there anything on the company website. This is, however, a gaffe that the company should address.

Let's be serious, looking at the #OccupyOakland crowd, or the crowd at any of the #Occupy events, how many of those folks do you think shop at Men's Wearhouse? Not a lot. I don't see too many tailored suits among the dirty hippie tent dwellers. So, if this is a marketing ploy, it makes about as much sense as the Pope marketing Catholicism to Planned Parenthood.

All this move did was tick off a bunch of people who do actually buy products there (I have on many occasions) and some of those folks won't be back. This picture will be in their minds when it comes time to buy clothing again.

The company needs to address this and right now.