“Le Slip Français”, the 2020 threats

We are all users of social media in our daily life in addition to our professional activity. We all think that we are experts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat due to the amount of time we spend on them. Still, there are some hiding threats which some firms have already suffered from.

Let’s come back to the scandalous scenario which has occured in January 2020 for the brand “Le Slip Français”.

The brand was the victim of a bad buzz after the diffusion of a video which was filmed during a "black face" party between employees of the "Le Slip Francais". On the images, we could observe their racist attitude as the employees have tried to dance like a monkey, listening to African music.

In consequence of the video, the brand has suffered from a boycott of customers, as people didn't want to give any money to a brand that had racist employees. In response, the band has shared a press release where they accuse their workers and denounce what they have done.

This video has been viral on social media, which has ruined their popularity, hence people would hear about the brand not for their products but for the racism of their employees. Nowadays this kind of bad buzz is the alarming threat of all the brands.

The threats on social media are gigantic which is why some actions which are posted can cause the bankrupt of brands.

"Le Slip Francais" is the perfect example as it demonstrates how the popularity of a brand can switch in only a single click. A tweet, a video, a sentence or a picture can be enough to threaten an entire society, or someone individually. "Le Slip Francais" has a capital of 135 552 € and was launched in 2012. This brand of underpants was boycotted due to its employees.

The scenario of the brand could happen to any other one, especially for big companies as they can't check on all of their employees, hence very hard to control. In this new generation, people have to be conscious of their attitude on social media, as they can be used against them. Before such an impact of social media, brands only had to make advertisements on TV or journal's, thus they were more controlled and less likely to be misunderstood.

Ambre Bourdoncle.