VOA标准英语2011--Social Media Impacts Retailer Decisions

Social Media Impacts Retailer¹ Decisions

 

When New York resident Lauren Todd saw a photo of the "I’m too pretty to do homework" T-shirt on Facebook last August, she was so annoyed, she started a petition on the social action website Change.org.

"It was outrageous² enough to go on Facebook but it was actually more outrageous than that," she told CBS News, "and I felt like I needed to do something about it.”

Her petition urged shoppers to boycott³ J.C. Penney until it stopped selling shirts with what she called sexist messaging.

Five hours later, Shelby Knox, director of women’s rights organizing for Change.org, started tweeting about the petition to her thousands of Twitter followers⁴.

Some of them began tweeting about the shirt and signed Todd’s digital petition.

"From the time that Lauren started the petition on Change.org and J.C. Penney pulled the shirt, it was about 10 hours," Knox says, "in which it got over 2,000 signatures and at one point was generating over 400 tweets a minute.”

J.C. Penney stopped selling this t-shirt which reads, "I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me," after an online backlash by consumers who considered the shirt design to be sexist.

According to Knox, with every new signature, emails were automatically sent to the J.C. Penney public relations team as well as its CEO.

J.C. Penney, which would not comment for this story, would not say how it comes up with the designs for its kids clothing.

'Ingrained in our culture'

Designer John Noone has worked with a number of major retailers⁵ and says he’s always used slogans with words like "pretty" or "princess" for girls.

"Because it’s easy to do, I guess it’s just so ingrained in our culture that it’s an easy sale," Noone says. "It’s gonna be easier to sell a shirt that says, you know, ‘My little princess’ than ‘My A student’.”

And these days, he says, designers get their ideas from anywhere: a celebrity⁶ tweet, a line on a TV show.

"And if you think it’s funny and the designer thinks it’s funny and the buyer thinks it’s funny, then, you know, it makes it to the store.”

But now, if a consumer doesn't think the designs are funny, they can do more than just not buy the shirt.

Retailers take notice

Not long after J.C. Penney pulled the ‘I’m too pretty’ shirt, fashion chain Forever 21 was hit by a barrage⁷ of online complaints, a petition and publicity⁸ about one of its girls’ shirts which read, "Allergic⁹ to Algebra¹⁰." The retailer removed it the day after the story spread.

Not all consumers have strong feelings about T-shirt messaging. Robin¹¹ Sackin, a professor at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, thinks people need to lighten up. She says children are influenced by their parents - not slogans on T-shirts.

"So if my child says to me ‘Mommy, I want to get that,’ I’d say, ‘OK, you can have it, but I don’t care if you’re pretty, you’re doing your homework.’"

Not all online petitions are effective. The recent change.org petition started by Target employees who didn't want the retailer to open on Thanksgiving got more than 200,000 signatures, but the company didn't budge¹².

The difference, says Ben Rattray, CEO of Change.org, is that in the case of J.C. Penney, a vital group of consumers was up in arms.

"Companies are certainly more concerned when the people involved are moms specifically," says Rattray. "I mean women in general, and moms in particular, control the vast majority of spending in their households."

Keeping up the pressure

Michele Yulo, a mother who signed the J.C. Penney petition, also spread the word via her blog, Facebook and Twitter. She’s been frustrated¹³ for years about the kind of clothing retailers sell for young girls, and the harm it might do to girls’ self-esteem as they grow up.

"It doesn’t have to be egregious¹⁴ to sink into the mindset. It’s just this, I call it, a slow drip of messages.”

Yulo even started her own girls’ clothing brand, called "Princess Free Zone," which features non-stereotypical colors and designs. But she still keeps up the pressure on mainstream¹⁵ retailers.

Last month she emailed the children’s wear company Gymboree and started an online petition to complain about baby outfits¹⁶ which read "Smart like Daddy" and "Pretty Like Mommy".

Days later, Gymboree emailed Yulo to say the items were no longer for sale.

1 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

2 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

3 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

4 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

5 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

6 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

7 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

8 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

9 allergic   

adj.过敏的，变态的

参考例句：

• Alice is allergic to the fur of cats.艾丽斯对猫的皮毛过敏。
• Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.许多人对空气传播的污染物过敏，比如花粉。

10 algebra   

n.代数学

参考例句：

• He was not good at algebra in middle school.他中学时不擅长代数。
• The boy can't figure out the algebra problems.这个男孩做不出这道代数题。

11 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

12 budge   

v.移动一点儿；改变立场

参考例句：

• We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我们试图把大石头抬起来，但它连动都没动一下。
• She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在这个问题上不肯让步。

13 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 egregious   

adj.非常的，过分的

参考例句：

• When it comes to blatant lies,there are none more egregious than budget figures.谈到公众谎言，没有比预算数字更令人震惊的。
• What an egregious example was here!现摆着一个多么触目惊心的例子啊。

15 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

16 outfits   

n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He jobbed out the contract to a number of small outfits. 他把承包工程分包给许多小单位。 来自辞典例句
• Some cyclists carry repair outfits because they may have a puncture. 有些骑自行车的人带修理工具，因为他们车胎可能小孔。 来自辞典例句