Following many people drawing attention to Miu Miu’s offensive yellow star design, the World Jewish Congress actually stepped in and asked Miu Miu to remove them.
Which they did.
The World Jewish Congress on Tuesday commended the Italian high fashion women’s clothing and accessory brand Miu Miu for quickly responding to the WJC’s request to remove from its collection items of clothing containing a yellow patch resembling the Star of David Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.
The WJC had contacted Prada, the owner of Miu Miu, on Monday evening to express its discomfort over the items and demand their removal. The company responded with swift attention and said that the items had been removed effective immediately
Preia Narendra, the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Miu Miu, told the WJC: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It was not Miu Miu’s intent in any way to make any political or religious statement, and we apologize for any offence that may have been taken. Kindly note that effective immediately these items will be removed from the collection.”
WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer commended Miu Miu on its quick action. “The World Jewish Congress commends Miu Miu and its parent company Prada on its swift attention and action to the concerns we raised regarding the use of the yellow star on its clothing items. At this critical time, when anti-Semitism and bigotry are rearing their heads in the public sphere, we must continue to exercise caution and show sensitivity in every sphere and sector.”
I have learned a few things from this.
- Social media is excellent for drawing attention to issues, but not always for achieving the results. Many of us contacted Miu Miu on Twitter to ask them to act – and nada. Although..
- Perhaps it sometimes takes the muscle of a large, prestigious organization like the World Jewish Congress to achieve these results
- Jews have many opinions (ok, I knew this already). There are still many who think the star was more like a Sheriff’s badge (even though I addressed that in my post).
- The media really seem to go out of their way not to mention the social media activists and bloggers who raise these issues, and are almost always late to the party
