“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Here’s what’s missing from the Fashion’s Night Out PSA…PEOPLE…real people! People like the people that are being courted to come out in droves to spend, spend, spend. Now, if you wanted to engage people like me, with expendable income, discerning taste and a huge supporter of the fashion industry, then you might not have shoved the obvious “celebrities” or rather “fashion celebrities”, in our faces. All those people damn well want you to come out and shop…they are white knuckling through this economic retail crisis. A better, more sophisticated idea would have been use The Sartorialist as a model for the subjects in the PSA. Really hip people that are the consumers, who are invited to come out with their wallets for a non-sale retail extravaganza. It would have been better and hipper if Anna and Sarah Jessica Parker were the only recognizable faces…maybe a model or two. But to completely negate the people that have style from this PSA…was…well…a bit out of touch with what’s happening in the streets….those streets you want filled. And that script. Yikes. Hey, as you know, I respect Anna Wintour and I think Fashion’s Night Out has great potential. But if what P Diddy says, “It’s for the people, baby,” wants to ring true…then the fashion people who are asking the people people to come out and shop need a revised mind set of what is a fun shopping experience. Having fun shopping should not be relegated to a once a year happening. Retail sales people in New York City should go to Los Angeles and take a lesson in smiling. Most of the time you walk into these stores and you get the same glib look as you would when you walk into an art gallery in West Chelsea…and boy, are those people insufferable. So, next year for your Fashion’s Night Out ad campaign…use the people, who are the luckiest people in the world…those that will be still out there shopping.