Refocusing Our Shame

This weekend I received a promotional email from SAXX, a brand that manufactures underwear and active wear. I have previously purchased merchandise from SAXX and generally like its products. I was looking for some short sleeve T's for the summer so this promo caught my eye. The ad features a fitness model rocking the T and makes note that the shirt uses a "breathable" performance fabric.


I drilled down into the ad, liked what I saw, and decided to order some shirts. End of story, right?


The next day I and everybody else on the SAXX email list (I assume) received a further email from SAXX apologizing for this ad. The apology email indicated the following:


"We want to reach out with total transparency and personally apologize for a marketing communication that went out to the SAXX community this morning.

An email was sent to our subscriber-base that featured a black man and wording referencing the “breathability” of a new fabric. This email was written and approved in March, and we hadn’t reviewed it again – which we now see was crucial in light of the current social climate and circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death. It was wrong, and we apologize. We must do better.

As a business it is our duty to speak up; impactful change needs to come from within institutions like ours. We are taking the time to examine how we operate as a company and how we can support change – we don’t have all the answers right now, but we can commit that we are engaging our team, community, and partners in the conversation."


I was curious about the apology from SAXX. Yes, they had featured a Black fitness model in a ad with a caption that contained the word "breathable". Many marketers use the word "breathable" to describe fitness wear and if anything it is a sign of diversity that they were using a Black model. Curious, I contacted SAXX directly to try and understand whether readers of the above ad had expressed offense.

Somewhat to my surprise, SAXX responded promptly with more context around the ad. The campaign scheduled in March was to launch on May 29th. The original ad copy had the phrase CATCH YOUR BREATH along side the Black model. That phrase did offend some readers and SAXX pulled the ad and resent the new ad. They also sent the apology to all recipients of the first ad. I never saw the first ad because it had been replaced by the ad above.


I applaud SAXX for taking feedback from its customer base and for correcting language that some found offensive. I think I would probably not have been offended by the CATCH YOUR BREATH wording in the first ad given the context. I do appreciate that sometimes it is best to be careful in these matters as what is clearly not offensive in the intended context, can at least be viewed as insensitive when placed into the context of broader world events.



I will not question that some readers of the original ad were genuinely offended. However, I did start to wonder about the culture we are creating of being constantly vigilant to these insensitivities in  the social and broader media world, while ignoring the flesh and bone indignities all around us. There was nothing inherently wrong with running a fitness ad that says CATCH YOUR BREATH. There is something considerably lacking in our willingness and commitment to admit, discuss, and address the deep racial divides we face. We walk on eggshells around the topic of racism because we are afraid to say the wrong thing. We are afraid some aspect of PC misstatement will blow back at us if we try to engage in real debate about what we need to do, and who we need to hold accountable. I was left thinking how much we are devaluing the loss of a life if we think we meaningfully contribute to the cause of equality by pointing out the potential insensitivity of wording in an ad that is an accident of timing. Maybe if we lived in a world full of equality and pristine race relations we could spend our effort calling out accidental offenses. But that is not our world. The house is on fire, literally, and too many people are worrying about whether the chair looks better at an angle or flush against the wall. Let's put out the fire, rebuild the house and then worry about the furniture.


There are better places to direct your offense or anger. I wonder how many people who wrote letters to SAXX also wrote letters to their city and county officials seeking transparency and demanding oversight of and accountability from mayors and police chiefs? How many chastised their elected national representatives for the decades of fostering policies that lead to judicial, economic and educational inequality? How many people screamed that they will not stand for any more "us against them" rhetoric that divides instead of unifies? How many people will make the commitment to not elect the same old tired losers the next time we have a chance to say with our votes that enough inaction is enough? How many people will care enough to personally devote resources (time, money) to support worthy organizations that fight for equality, thereby directly contributing to protecting the values they profess to hold?


The full apology from SAXX is indicated below. SAXX personnel indicated to me the contribution to the NAACP was the heartfelt reaction to do something to take a stand for change, and not related in any way to reactions to the marketing campaign. I will accept that representation at face value given the transparency with which they have responded to my broader questions.


1. We will be making a donation of $50,000 CAD to the @naacpto support their mission to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.

2. We are pausing all marketing-related social posts and emails this week, in order to create more space for this important conversation to take place in your feed.

3. We are challenging our team to grow, learn and be better by committing to training and tools to educate our employees on matters of inclusion, anti-racism and equality.

The world needs more than our marketing emails right now, and this is something we will continue to actively explore internally and externally, in the days, weeks and years to come.

Thank you for holding us accountable and taking the time to email and call us out. We welcome your feedback on how we can use our platform to further anti-racism. We’re listening.


The key point in the SAXX message is that its marketing emails are immaterial in the context of the police brutality killing of George Floyd. Let's direct our offense, outrage, sadness and resolve where it can best swing the momentum in the direction of meaningful change.