Fortune - Reese Witherspoon's free dress mess

April 16, 2020

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Few women are on President Trump’s council on reopening America, Stacey Abrams is ready to serve as VP, and Reese Witherspoon’s lifestyle brand starts with good intentions—and ends up in a PR nightmare. Have a good Thursday.

– Dress for unrest. One of the few pleasures of the pandemic has been watching the world—from neighbors to nations—come together to help one another through this trying time. The business community is no exception, be it giving out grants to smaller companies, pivoting to manufacture medical supplies, providing products and services to frontline healthcare workers, or simply donating piles of money.

But doing good in a crisis isn’t always as easy as it looks—as Reese Witherspoon and her lifestyle brand Draper James recently learned. The New York Times has the story of the company’s ill-fated attempt to celebrate the hard work teachers have been doing during the lockdown with a free dress giveaway for educators. The problem? The brand got more than 1 million applications for the frocks—but had only 250 to give away. As you can imagine, that did not go over well with the teachers who’d applied, all of whom had provided their contact info and were now getting marketing emails from the company.

So, how does a well-intentioned gesture turn into a PR nightmare? The Times’ Vanessa Friedman gets into the details, but the broad strokes are simple—combine Witherspoon’s larger-than-life fame with the reality that Draper James is a relatively small company (it has fewer than 30 employees) and you get a million or so understandably confused and disappointed teachers. Friedman writes:

“Assuming [Witherspoon] was giving away her cheapest dress, which sells for $78, and if the cost of that dress to her company is, say, $40, which takes into account the average wholesale margin, that would have meant spending something like $40 million on the giveaway…Giving away $40 million in dresses may even have seemed in character, at least as far as this public character went. Ms. Witherspoon is a very plausible dream benefactor, swooping in to do something entirely unexpected and joy-giving.”

Not every company has a widely beloved celebrity at its head, but there are lessons here for even the most glamour-free of businesses. Here’s what I took away: Yes, it’s absolutely worth doing what you can to help those in need. And, yes, doing so requires companies to act quickly—but not so quickly that they don’t think through the consequences of what they’re offering. Can you deliver on the promises you’re making? Are you making the best possible use of your resources? And finally, does your feel-good act have marketing strings attached? If so, now’s the time to think about cutting them. Just ask Reese!

Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee

Today’s Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Veep's veep. Biden-Abrams 2020? Stacey Abrams says she would be on board. "I would be an excellent running mate," the former Georgia candidate for governor says. "If I am selected, I am prepared and excited to serve." Elle

- Do the Rite thing. Heyward Donigan took over as CEO of Rite Aid in August; now, her plan to turn around the drugstore chain has been upended by the pandemic. In this interview, she talks about her vision for the retailer and about keeping toilet paper in stock. Wall Street Journal

- Expert counsel? President Trump this week name-checked the business executives who will advise him on "reopening America." Less than 10% of the CEOs are women; the list of almost 200 includes Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin and Kathy Warden of Northrop Grumman. Fortune

- Kiwi solidarity. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government ministers will take 20% pay cuts for six months to "show solidarity" with New Zealanders who have lost their jobs or are on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis. The move is symbolic, not meant to make any significant change to the government's budget. Guardian

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- Do as I say, not as I do. Ivanka Trump has made videos advocating social distancing and asking Americans who can stay home to "please do so," but it appears that she has not been practicing what she's preaching. The NYT reports that she left D.C., violating the city's stay-at-home order, to take her family to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey to celebrate the first night of Passover. New York Times

- Justice watch. In a long New Yorker profile of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, there's a short anecdote about Republicans' approach to the Supreme Court. "McConnell’s telling our donors that when R.B.G. meets her reward, even if it’s October, we’re getting our judge," a former Trump White House Official says. "He’s saying it’s our October Surprise.” The New Yorker

- Anxiety, by the billions . Anxiety facing working parents—and specifically, working moms—could cost the U.S. economy $341 billion. In a survey of 500 mothers, 81% said their ability to engage effectively at work was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. An economist calculated the $341 billion number with the estimated cost of employee disengagement (34% of a person's salary) for 31 million employed mothers nationwide, making on average of $40,000. Working Mother

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