Rodarte for MAC Update

In case y'all didn't hear about the original Rodarte for MAC uproar, the short story is: Rodarte decided to do a line with MAC that was inspired by their road trip to Mexico, where they apparently spent a lot of time around Juarez.  Juarez is a town in Mexico full of factories that mainly women work at, and for the last few decades there has been terrible violence in Mexico directed towards these women--rapes, murders, serial murders, assault.  Rodarte named a nail polish Juarez, another polish Factory, a blush Quinceanera, and so on.


There was blogosphere uproar about how distasteful the product names were, and MAC pretty much became terrified no one would buy anything from the collection, so they said that they would change product names and donate 100K to organizations helping women in Juarez.  The feedback on that was that it was too little, too late.  So yesterday, MAC announced that they would be donating ALL of the profits from the collection to an organization in Mexico.  Here's the press release:


"MEXICO CITY, México, July 29, 2010 – In response to public concern over the limited edition MAC Rodarte makeup collection, set to launch in fall 2010, MAC will donate all of its global profits from this collection to a newly created initiative to raise awareness and provide on-the-ground support to the women and girls in Juarez. MAC and Rodarte are deeply sorry that this makeup collection was so offensive to the people of Mexico and concerned global citizens.

This announcement follows a meeting last evening in Mexico City with MAC executives and Mexican government officials, including CONAVIM (Comisión Nacional Para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia Contra las Mujeres/National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women.)

During the meeting, held at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this collective group committed to working together on the overall direction of the new initiative to help the women and girls of Juarez and to raise global awareness of their plight. MAC executives reiterated their deep regret and reinforced that it was never MAC’s or Rodarte’s intent to minimize the suffering of the women and girls of Ciudad Juarez.

In the coming weeks, MAC and Rodarte will be consulting with members of CONAVIM´s advisory board, as well as other local and global experts, to develop a comprehensive framework that provides grants to local and international organizations with a track record of improving the lives of the women and girls in Juarez.

“We are deeply sorry and apologize to everyone we offended, especially the victims, the women and girls of Juarez and their families. We have heard the response of concerned global citizens loud and clear and are doing our very best to right our wrong. The essence of MAC is to give back and care for the community and our initial handling of this makeup collection was not reflective of MAC’s values. MAC and Rodarte are committed to using these learnings to raise awareness on this important issue and to leverage our unique platform to help the women and girls of Juarez,” said MAC President John Demsey.

“Rodarte is committed to using creativity for positive social change. As designers, we strongly feel it is our responsibility to use ideas and actions for the good of our global community and are truly sorry for the offense we have caused. We are raising our voices in support of the strong women and girls of Juarez and joining others who are working internationally to improve their lives,” said Kate and Laura Mulleavy, designers of Rodarte.

Last week, MAC and Rodarte announced they would also be renaming the products and redesigning the marketing materials associated with the collection.

MAC has a longstanding tradition of service in Mexico, supporting important social causes in the country such as HIV prevention and treatment. Since 2002, the MAC AIDS Fund has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to local entities, including Fundación Eudes, La Casa de la Sal, A.C., Ser Humano, A.C., Mesón de la Misericordia Divina A.C., Pirana Studio, and Fundación Unidos por un México Vivo.

MAC has had operations in Mexico since 1999. The brand currently employs more than 150 local professionals."

All I have to say about this is WOOHOO!  It still bothers me that MAC and Rodarte started this collection off on such a distasteful foot, but that is a lot of money going to help the residents of Juarez, and just because of that I'll be buying some pieces from the collection.