Amid the many groans in the wake of Hurricane Sandy last week were consumers complaining about how many brands apparently saw the storm as an e-sales opportunity and little else. (American Apparel held a “Sandy Sale” and Urban Outfitters offered free shipping, to cite just two examples.)
So this week, when forecasters warned of yet another storm heading toward New York, employees at the tiny New York office of French fragrance company Creed decided the streak of bad weather afforded a chance, however small, to do some good.
Creed’s North American CEO Emmanuel Saujet decided to donate all of the umbrellas in the office—plus 50 more ordered from the manufacturer—to a relief shipment bound for the devastated Rockaways neighborhood. Creed doesn’t sell accessories, but all its employees get un parapluie they can use—or, in this case, give away. “It’s a common-sense measure,” said a Creed spokesperson, “providing an umbrella so people can have some comfort as they go about all they need to do.”
Of course, the umbrellas do happen to bear the Creed logo, which will most likely mark the first time this maker of $400 colognes has done any marketing in Queens, inadvertent as it might be.
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