Quote of the Week: FIGS
“A lot of you guys have pointed out an insensitive video we had on our site — we are incredibly sorry for any hurt this has caused you, especially our female DOs (who are amazing!),” the company said in a statement. “FIGS is a female founded company whose only mission is to make you guys feel awesome.”
FIGS scrubs marketing
(If you haven’t heard of the controversy then read this article. The full video is there. Yes, the physician world, especially DOs, are in an uproar. I am not sure if nurses, their main customer base, care. Do you think it will hurt FIGS that much? Nah. Below is the comment section under their new ad on FB. As I have always said, fashion trumps cancel culture. It’s the second law of thermodynamics, I believe.)
BRING BACK MANILA! CHARCOAL PLEASE!
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To be fair, there was a veritable deluge of outrage over this ad. The founder of Physician Moms Group (which at this point is >70,000 members strong) heavily publicized this insulting/inflammatory piece of garbage and the ensuing lame “apology.” After the AOA threatened to sue, Figs donated $100,000 to it. I guess that’s one good thing that came of it. I personally am really bummed to no longer buy my favorite scrubs from this company because unfortunately I’m a female DO and even though I can probably read a medical book upside down, I definitely wouldn’t bother, nor do I wear babydoll pink.
A few observations, Doug:
1. In Italian, “fico” is the word for fig, the fruit. “Fica” is the direct equivalent of the English “See You Next Tuesday,” if you know what word I mean.
If I were founding a women’s clothing company, I might choose a different name.
2. I never received a single piece of literature from a DO school until I was briefly waitlisted for allopathic school, at which point I received an avalanche of advertising for DO schools.
Just an observation.
3. I had never heard of this company before, but any company that would advertise to professionals this way is F’ed-up and deserves to feel a giant flushing sound as its customers wash away. I mean that was just cold. And DOs are sensitive about that sort of thing. I mean, I’ll read a medical book upside-down at work just to amuse the nurses, but the DOs, who ain’t no worse than I am, are always fighting for the respect they deserve.