The Truth About the Rumor of Tommy Hilfiger

Jacqueline Ramirez

Professor Jill Loveless

English 112

April 7, 2005

The Truth about the Rumor of Tommy Hilfiger

A big controversy happened, the well-known Fashion Designer Tommy Hilfiger was on the Oprah show. She asked him if it was true if he said he did not make clothes for Blacks and Asians, his clothes were intended for upper class White people. When he admitted he said those things, she asked him to leave. This E-Mail is an Urban Legend. Juicy Emails like these are simply for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken seriously. Like junk mail it should be emptied into the recycle bin.

People assume if an E-mail is sent to them or if a friend mentioned the incident then it must be true. How could someone write something so mean and cruel and spread it through emails? Thomas Craughwell explains that "fear, paranoia, envy and suspicion of unfamiliar" are reasons why urban legends such as Tommy Hilfiger are passed around (Craughwell 10). People read newspapers such as the Inquirer and read junk E-mails at work to make the day go by. Richard Roeper describes people as "today's information consumer", who are "savvy, jaded and cynical" (Roeper 10). It's no secret that people can be gullible when it comes to interesting news. Roper states that people are as "willing as ever to believe stories that happened to best friend's brother's accountant" (Roper 11). People have gotten too lazy to look up information for themselves and look for quick fixes, instead of facts. The Tommy Hilfiger Rumor has all of the signs of the urban legend. As Defined by Craughwell "urban legends are usually passed by word of mouth and by E-mail". Urban legends have many variations (Craughwell 9,13). David Emery from About.com has two of the most common variations of the E-mail in his article. Before there were any rumors of him on the Oprah Show, It was a "news article" in a "Philippian tabloid in 1996" as Barbara Mikkelson explains in her article.

According to Barbara Mikkelson, the rumor was altered again with him being on the CNN style show with Elsa Klensch . In this rumor he did not comment on black people. He commented about "Asian people not looking right in the clothes" (Barbara Mikkelson). Although the rumors are being shown to be not true, they are still being passed around to this day (David Emery). People who are in the know about rumors made inquiries to the Anti Defamation League. On July 11 2001, the organization wrote a letter to Tommy Hilfiger investigating the matter. They found the endless emails and faxes about the hoax false (ADL.org). Oprah admits on her show that she had never met the man. She also posted her remarks on her website incase anybody as missed the January 11, 1999 episode (Oprah.com).

According to Barbara Mikkelson, many black people do not buy his clothes and have "boycotted his clothes" because of the email rumor (Barbara Mikkelson). The rumor gave Tommy Hilfiger a bad reputation.