Ellen DeGeneres (Warner Bros) Ellen DeGeneres and other famous folks are tweeting mad at the CEO of retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, after some 2006 comments about plus-sized customers resurfaced in a new report.
A recent story about high-volume, low cost brands like H&M featuring larger models and a greater variety of sizes brought the invective of A&F CEO Mike Jeffries back into the spotlight.
"Good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that," Jeffries told Salon years ago, one of several quotes that were republished on May 3 in a Business Insider story.
"We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."
These recycled comments have absolutely inspired everything from a viral campaign to punish the shop chain to insults from Hollywood types on their social platforms.
"According to him, anyone who’s a plus size isn’t cool enough to shop in Abercrombie and Fitch," Ellen DeGeneres said on her Friday chat show. "You know what I say to that? Oh, Fitch, please."
DeGeneres' studio audience booed at mention of the label, and cackled when DeGeneres did a bit with a miniature-sized A&F polo.
"Beauty isn’t between a size 0 and 8. It’s not a number at all.
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