Nail polish company exploits Paris tragedy for financial gain
A NEW YORK beauty company is exploiting the recent Paris tragedy for financial gain — without offering a penny to support victims.
YOU’VE temporarily changed your Facebook profile picture to the French tricolour in a sign of solidarity with the citizens of France — why not paint your nails blue, white and red, too?
New York-based company Duri Cosmetics has jumped on the tragedy bandwagon by promoting a range of Paris-themed products so “beauty mavens can unite and wave hands (and toes) in unity.”
In perhaps the most clueless PR stunt of the year, it distributed a gushing press release urging customers to buy three of its nail colours — “Baton Rouge Blue,” “I Do” (solid white) and “Parisian Tango” (red) — at $6 a pop, describing the gesture as an “effortless way to pay respects and show support.”
Trouble is, not a penny of the proceeds will help surviving victims of Friday’s massacre, which claimed the lives of 129 people in the French capital.
Asked by The New York Post if any of the profits would be donated, a Duri Cosmetics spokeswoman from Manhattan PR firm CI Visions said: “Unfortunately, they [Duri Cosmetics] had trouble getting a donation program with it.”
In the cringe-worthy press release, the company boasts how buyers can “offer a helping hand to Paris” with a “high ten” manicure customised with toxin-free, “chip-resistant, long-lasting nail polishes.”
PR veteran Rob DeRocker was appalled by the cynical publicity campaign.
“It’d be different if they were giving away the nail polish,” he told The Post.
“It’s as if McDonald’s jumped on this to sell more French fries.”