Fashion brand Navabi strikes back at ‘Overweight Haters Ltd’ campaign
Fashion brand Navabi has responed to ‘Overweight Haters Ltd’ handing out leaflets to people on the London underground calling them "a fat, ugly human", by creating its own cards to tell people they look great.
Last night (30 November) NHS worker Kara Florish took to Twitter to share an image of the card she was handed by a stranger on the London Underground.
"Our organisation hates and resents fat people," the card read. "We object to the enormous amount of food resources you consume while half the world starves.
"We disapprove of your wasting NHS [National Health Service] money to treat your selfish greed. And we do not understand why you fail to grasp that by eating less you will be better off, slimmer, happy and find a partner who is not a perverted chubby-lover, or even find a partner at all. We also object that the beatiful [sic] pig is used as an insult. You are not a pig. You are a fat, ugly human."
As multiple news organisations reported on the incident and the British Transport Police began investigating, Navabi – which describes itself as the global leader in premium plus size fashion – quickly set about delivering its own message to people travelling on the tube.
It enlisted The Colour Company to create its own cards which read ‘You look GREAT’ and has been handing them out to people at Oxford Circus tube.
We're getting cards printed & going to Oxford Circus to give to people. Feel free to use & do the same if you like ❤ pic.twitter.com/IeU7eIuUzC
— navabi (@navabiFashion) November 30, 2015
Bethany Rutter, the brand's UK social content executive, told The Drum that after seeing how people were reacting on social to the "fatphobic" campaign, she took the decision to get the unbranded cards printed and within an hour was on Oxford Street to hand them out personally.
"Color Company in Soho can print cards in an hour so I ordered and picked them up before hitting the streets around Oxford Circus and Carnaby Street giving them to people. I just kept moving rather than standing still and handing them out as I didn't want people to think I was selling something and just stopped people I wanted to give them to," she said.
"This was important for me, and for Navabi, because the reports about the tube cards were so unbelievably negative and we wanted to turn it into an opportunity for something good. The response from our followers has been so positive, everyone's been really kind and encouraging, which was the same reaction from the people I gave the cards to on the street!"
Overweight Haters Ltd also seems to be a completely fictional company – it’s not listed on Companies House – and so Navabi took the liberty of registering a website in its name where it “wants to do something nice” with the domain.