We're donating an extra $1,000...
Just to wrap things up from our end…
Wednesday morning it was a bit of a shock awaking to a raft of txt messages from mates informing me of Mr Vintage getting blasted in the National Newspaper via the sideswipe column. We thought, and still think, that the Christchurch t-shirt was a nice thing to do. It wasn’t really that cool of Ana to do her piece. Whilst what followed was, admittedly at times, rather emotionally charged – at the end of the day, we've raised in excess of $3,500 (at last count) from the t-shirt sales alone. And we’re really stoked about that. I think some dudes in Christchurch will as well.
Whether or not you view any sort of profit being made from a charitable t-shirt as being disingenuous or not, it isn’t for us to decide – and you’re free to your opinions.
What we will admit to and apologise for is a few errors of judgement and reacting immaturely. While we stand by a lot of what we said over the course of the day – there were statements that we now see were made in an over-emotive state. The whole issue really stems from a number of miscommunications – from both parties – and whether we should have sent out an amendment to the press release, whether she should have asked us before print; it doesn’t really matter now.
What isn’t cool is the people questioning our level of commitment to the cause – we’re not people who celebrate a tragedy, and we don’t want to be seen that way. So we’ll give some more money. Straight from our pocket. Straight to the Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake Appeal. No profits. No margins.
WE’RE DONATING AN EXTRA $1,000 OUT OF OUR OWN POCKET TO THE RED CROSS CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE APPEAL. We’re not asking anyone to match our contribution. We just want to show that it's about the support - that's the main thing.
Cool.
22 Comments
MV is far better than the guy on trademe. At least MV was sharing 25% of $20....the guy on trademe is sharing 10% of $30 and openly keeping the rest to provide a rideshare to the skifield or something equally as frivolous!!!
GROW UP EVERYONE and get your own life instead of poking your nose into ours.
Pissed off Cantabrian.
Seems you missed the point altogether......
"But then again it isn’t about the money for you is it, rather that a small business shouldn’t have the right to defend themselves against a public attack."
Whatever the motive was behind the tee, it was obviously not a good one as can be seen by the fallout over it. It has been perceived in a negative light and its completely understandable why when you see what the damage is down here and how people are reacting to it.
Charity comes in many forms and I think Mr V chose the wrong approach to a good cause. Whichever way you want to slice it, it has been seen as an Auckland company trying to raise their profile and profits on the backs of Canterbury's tragedy (and I suspect there is some truth in that weather its admitted or not).
Wasn't Mr Vintage offered the chance to respond/correct in the Sideswipe column? I'm sure they would have come out looking good if they did that.
They blew this up, all the criticism of them is on their own page right here. I don't see the Herald engaging in these pissy little tactics.
Grow up, you're upset a small business is justifiably angry about being targeted by a ‘journalist’ for apparently profiteering from a natural disaster. They are donating proceeds of the sale yet it seems you would rather they made a loss on each item??
I look forward to the sideswipe article which discusses the upcoming audit of each of the charities offering their services to the quake victims. How quiet will you be in your criticism, when informed each also covers their operating costs and ‘bank’ a percentage on top of this for future operation before delivering the monies.
Surely these charities on the front-line ‘profiteering’ from this disaster will also be due your public slander?
I’d also suggest holding off on your congratulations of sideswipe until the upcoming piece - about how poor her employer has been in donating to the victims while themselves making huge profits through extensive coverage, increased circulation, listenership and advertising space. $100,000 donated by APN News & Media from their 46 newspapers and 10 radio stations doesn't make them look very generous to the cause when you consider this is only $1785 each. (Is that less than half what Mr V are donating?)
But then again it isn’t about the money for you is it, rather that a small business shouldn’t have the right to defend themselves against a public attack.
Go on buy a t-shirt you know you want to. Probably wouldn’t be a good look now at your APN News office though would it.
How about they give you nothing if you're going to act like that.
They're a business, not a charity, they were trying to help Canterbury out with the resources they had, and it's better than most companies who have done nothing.
P.S. Sideswipe isn't an opinion column, so why is Ana giving her opinion? She holds no expertise in opinion writing, so really her argument holds no validation.
The point of Ana comment has been missed - why let 25% of your money go to the cause when you can make closer to 100% of your money useful?
Because buying a T-shirt show yor support? Or does it show you threw a fair bit of money away, with bugger all of it going to the intended target?
Good on you guys for doing a good thing (shame about the bitch fight) but at the end of the day you have raised over $3,500 for chch, How much did Sideswipe raise?
As it stands, it seems to me that you have caused a hellava lot of anger, distress and controversy over this stupid t-shirt - and you keep digging yourselves a bigger ditch.
If you were a Canterbury company flogging this shirt, I don't think it would be an issue but you are sitting in Auckland with a very obvious arrogant Auckland attitude all the while trying to portray yourselves as humanitarian do-gooders.
The shirt, the press release and everything to do with it has been a public relations disaster and no matter how you try to spin it your company still appears insincere.
I congratulate Sideswipe for calling you on your bullshit and your complete lack of respect for Cantabrians.
Mr V, seriously, don't beat yourself up over any of this. We live we learn. We are not media trained robots! If someone says something hurtful, then you react! It's only human. Like water off a ducks back? Easier said then done...
Kia kaha x
" It wasn’t really that cool of Ana to do her piece. "
"Whether or not you view any sort of profit being made from a charitable t-shirt as being disingenuous or not, it isn’t for us to decide – and you’re free to your opinions."
And obviously than you're free to attack and extort people for giving their opinions if you don't think their cool.
And people are free to their opinions. Some people do believe businesses that participate in lots of charity causes do it for self-promotion. You may not, but it's not your call on whether it is cool or not to question your commitment to the cause. You seem to keep forgetting that bit about people being free to their opinions. You say it, but then you don't believe it.
Good work Mr V.
The ultimate goal of helping people in need was met! Nobody was harmed in the making of shirts other than peoples ideals.
Now if only other companies would jump in and help donate as well!
Cheers for more feedback. All duly noted, and we'll make a few changes from here on in.
Thanks again,
Mr Vintage.
I can understand how someone bad mouthing you in the press could/would piss you off though. However, I found the best way to deal with these kind of 'journalists' - I use that term very loosely - is to ignore them, completely.
Kind regards
It's clear that your press release was wrong, are you actually going to take responsibility for that? Or will you just keep saying she should have phoned you to check on figures that you provided in black and white and signed off in a media release?
You've admitted here you made mistakes and acted immaturely - and made an apology of sorts, but you're continuing your campaign to exact revenge by allowing defamatory comments here and on your other online forums - and looking at your front page and Sideswipe T-shirt mockup, you haven't backed off your attempt to extort money from Samways. Pretty poor judgement, maybe you should think quickly about the legal mess you're creating for yourself.
Cool or not, Ana's allowed to say whatever she wants to say - rather than being dicks about it, you should have just corrected her - you could have come out of this looking great! But you weren't cool either - to me, your responses have all been a bit lame. Bit of a let down tbh. Nevermind, just some stuff to keep in mind if/when this kind of thing arises again.
Big of you.