The Real Insult Behind Marie Claire - Euphonik Drama

Social media has been abuzz this week about Marie Claire's inclusion of DJ Euphonik in the #MCInHerShows campaign. Much of the hoohaa around the campaign has been about the DJ's alleged assault on his ex girlfriend few years ago. The issue got further inflamed when the ex-girlfriend seemingly took swipes at the mag for including him via Twitter.  

Now that the dust has settled, can we have a frank conversation about this? Yes. Dj Euphonik has responded to the claims and defended his honor, Marie Claire sent out a statement that there was no ill-intentions in conceptualizing the campaign.

BUT let's be real here. Campaigns, be they advertising and/or Public Service Announcements, are not done on a whim. The idea is conceptualized, discussed, vetted and then approved. Through that process a number of people in the company would be privy to that idea. 

You probably know by now, where I am going with this but indulge me for a sec — writers, editors, photographers, makeup artist and crew at the shoot of this campaign, basically more than 10 people knew of this campaign's inclusion of DJ Euphonik long before the public did. Do you honestly wanna tell me that no-one raised the fact that DJ Euphonik might ruffle a few feathers by being on the campaign at that time?

My thoughts; Someone probably did and the magazine went ahead with this regardless. And that is where the malice of these sort of campaigns comes in and their insult should be called out.

Everything these days is about social media. Creatives are put under pressure to put out the next viral topic on social media. The goal has become to be the trending topic on Twitter rather than actually starting a real conversation around a cause. 

With that I believe the powers that be at Marie Claire knew very well that having Euphonik on the campaign will raise eyebrows but they did not care because that is exactly what they wanted. Come on on now. It is not like this is an original idea that just had to be done, Blaque Magazine has done this man in heals thing before. 

Obviously since this was not an original idea, for Marie Claire's version of the idea to get attention, it had to be controversial. It would be naive for us to think all those intelligent people at Marie Claire, who work in the media industry, did not know about Euphonik's history.

Statement from Marie Claire SA: 

‘To those who have engaged with the #MCInHerShoes campaign, your critical responses have shown us in no uncertain terms that the campaign was ill-conceived. 

We have upset so many of you and for this we apologise. Our intention was to spark conversation around gender-based violence in South Africa in a meaningful way – but it is clear that we have not. 

We made an error of judgment in our choice of personality for this campaign. Being a magazine with a legacy of supporting women’s issues, we should not have approached someone with a history of alleged abuse. 

We realise our mistake. We will do better. 

The Marie Claire Team

For Marie Claire to release a statement seemingly saying;  we didn't realise that having this guy on the campaign would cause such offense, is not only laughable but down right insulting to the plight of abused women and everyone's intelligence. 

Whether, DJ Euphonik is innocent of his alleged abuse or not (which Marie Claire conveniently did not touch on in the statement), the mere fact that he was part of an abused scandal meant that he would pull focus from the "real" message behind this campaign. They knew this. 

The sad reality is that this will not be the end of such gimmick campaigns. The Naked Issue, I can bet my career on it that most people who know the campaign will remember Boity's ass but not know anything about what the campaign was for. Who wins? Marie Claire, not the cause the campaign is done for. 

Now, everyone is talking about Dj Euphonik. The conversation has turned to his revelation that his alleged abuse on his girlfriend may not have happened as reported in the media. Marie Claire trended on Twitter, but the conversation about what the campaign is for fell by the wayside. 

Which then begs the question; Do these people actually care about women's issues or they just use such issues for publicity?