MAC, Rodarte And The Women Of Juarez

I really can’t say it any better than the source of this information, www.temptalia.com, but in brief, the news is that MAC have now agreed to donate the entire global profits to benefit a newly created Women & Girls of Juarez Initiative. After an intital offer to donate $100,000 to Juarez charities, and a decision to rename the products, it seems that MAC were called to justify their collaboration with Rodarte inspired by Juarez and the partial statement here taken from www.temptalia.com reads as follows:

“This announcement follows a meeting last evening in Mexico City with MAC executives and Mexican government officials, including CONAVIM (Comisión Nacional Para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia Contra las Mujeres/National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women.)

During the meeting, held at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this collective group committed to working together on the overall direction of the new initiative to help the women and girls of Juarez and to raise global awareness of their plight. MAC executives reiterated their deep regret and reinforced that it was never MAC’s or Rodarte’s intent to minimize the suffering of the women and girls of Ciudad Juarez.

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In the coming weeks, MAC and Rodarte will be consulting with members of CONAVIM´s advisory board, as well as other local and global experts, to develop a comprehensive framework that provides grants to local and international organizations with a track record of improving the lives of the women and girls in Juarez.

“We are deeply sorry and apologize to everyone we offended, especially the victims, the women and girls of Juarez and their families. We have heard the response of concerned global citizens loud and clear and are doing our very best to right our wrong. The essence of MAC is to give back and care for the community and our initial handling of this makeup collection was not reflective of MAC’s values. MAC and Rodarte are committed to using these learnings to raise awareness on this important issue and to leverage our unique platform to help the women and girls of Juarez,” said MAC President John Demsey.”

There is simply no doubt that the chain of blogger outrage and reaction to a badly thought through concept has played a huge part in achieving the rightful outcome. With so many bloggers from around the world petitioning, highlighting Juarez on their blogs and emailing MAC (from a personal view, I would like to specifically mention Tweeters @tsunimee and @healing_beauty for going above and beyond), it’s a testament to persistence and perseverence by those who would not accept that and apology and $100,000 was a just or fair way to undo the damage. It’s an issue that has united – and in some cases, divided – bloggers far and wide and sends a message to all that we can and did make a difference to an unjust situation through the common interest of beauty.

We’re now all far more aware of the situation in Juarez which undoubtedly would have remained out of our view if it were not for this joint effort, and let’s not forget that MAC listened. And then put their money where their mouth is.