SAF contacts companies, like Victoria’s Secret, and asks them to promote products on their own merits.
A women’s lingerie retailer, a members-only men’s fashion retailer, and an online charity auctioneer all used the same marketing tactic in their Valentine’s Day promotions — they each made a negative statement about floral gifts. As the voice of the floral industry, the Society of American Florists contacts these offending companies and asks them to reconsider their approach.
Here is a list of companies recently contacted by SAF:
- Charitybuzz, a for-profitcompany that raises funds for nonprofit organizations through online charity auctions, distributed an email with the subject line: “Roses Are Red, Chocolate Is Dead—Give Something More Meaningful.” Two hours later, Charitybuzz responded to SAF’s message. “That subject line was simply meant to garner attention, not to offend anyone,” replied Mathew Troillett, senior public relations manager at Charitybuzz. “It was only used for a small e-mail outreach and was not part of a larger Marketing or PR strategy — and certainly won’t be used for such going forward.”
- Touch of Modern, a members-only ecommerce website and app focused on selling lifestyle products, fashion, and accessories to men, touted “Flowers are officially over” on its website.
- Victoria’s Secret sent an email that read: “Better than roses.”
As reported in the Jan. 25 E-brief, SAF has responded to Goodhousekeeping.com, Scentsy and Zyppah for negative floral statements.
“I think you got it done,” Mark Anderson, of Floristware, told SAF on Monday, referring to Zyppah ads on SiriusXM radio that say flowers die and stink. “I have not heard that ad since.” At press time, the ZYPPAH website still includes “Roses will die after a few days and chocolate will make you fat!”
Forward harmful floral publicity to jscala@safnow.org.
