Dive Brief:
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When the Gap tweeted out a photo (shown below) of a plaid dress Aug. 4, the reaction it received on Twitter was fast and furious criticism about the model’s weight.
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The resulting tweets about the post made for a discussion on too-thin models and “skinny shaming” that overpowered anything about the pastel plaid.
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The company said it understood the reaction to the photo and that the resulting conversation was “valuable.”
Dive Insight:
The dark side of social media is that people are free to say almost anything, and virtual mobs can quickly form. Clothing retailers have long dealt with poor reactions over troubling images of models, especially unhealthy ones. In this era of social media, they are being taken to task swiftly.
