The new line has been developed in collaboration with fashion brand Rodarte to include a comprehensive line of high fashion color cosmetics with a Mexican theme.
Due to be officially launched in September, the line includes one particular product that has sparked all the controversy – a pink nail varnish shade which is called ‘Juarez’.
Juarez and the bad connection
What has caused the controversy is the current connection with Juarez, an economically depressed industrial town in the far North of the country that borders New Mexico.
What has enraged many individuals, both consumers and women’s rights groups, is the fact that Juarez has recently been linked to a string of rapes, murders and disappearances of local women working in the nearby factories.
Amelia Parry, editor-in-chief of women’s relationship website The Frisky.com, referred to the decision to give the name to the nail varnish as ‘cluelessness’, in an interview she gave to Fox News.
No intenetion to cause offence
MAC has made a public statement to apologize to its customers over it error of judgement and said it had no intention to cause offense.
The statement said that the company also intended to donate a portion of the proceeds from the MAC Rodarte sales to help those the needy of Juarez.
Likewise, the offending brand will now not be launched, but the rest of the collection will hit stores across North America as planned