Ginger + Liz Threatens to Sue Blogger: How to Give your Brand a Bad Name

EDITED TO ADD: It has come to my attention that the situation was more complex than I thought it was, as by the time I had read Squarrell's post, she might have edited it slightly, and I've just seen her comments on All Lacquered Up's blog (which, by the way, is quite heavy on promotion for G+L. There is speculation among the nail fanatic community that ALU could have some sort of relationship with G+L for promoting them on her blog, but all that is unverified, since both ALU and G+L have refused to comment on it). While I do agree that this makes the situation different from what I originally thought it was, my main opinion on the entire issue is largely unchanged. I do agree that Sara may have been in the wrong if her comments of rebottling weren't true, and if that is the case, G+L should correct this. However, sending a lawyer's letter right off the bat is a very heavy-handed response given that they are just dealing with one individual, and one that is too harsh, and bound to give the company a bad reputation. Instead, a much better thing to do would have been to get a PR person to send out a more friendly-sounding email clarifying the situation - that would have gotten the same effect, and have avoided the drama. Justified or not, this is still really bad publicity for G+L, which could have been avoided. A lawyer's letter should be the last line of resort, not the first thing you think of, especially when dealing with harmless individuals who are your customers!


Have you ever heard of Ginger + Liz? Well, I haven't either. Did you know they made nail polish? Neither did I. So why am I suddenly blogging about them?

Turns out, my very first introduction to this brand is in THIS POST, where Squarrell, one of the beauty bloggers I follow on Twitter, writes about how she received a Cease and Desist letter from the legal team of Ginger + Liz. They accuse her of defaming their product, and want her to retract her posts, and not engage in further defamation.

Now, of course, being a blogger myself, this piqued my interest. What on earth could she have done to them to deserve this? Did she say their stuff sucked without trying it out? Did she spread lies about them? Well, turns out they were offended at THIS POST, and THIS POST, where she compared some Ginger + Liz nail polish colours (which she bought herself) with some cheaper Diamond Cosmetics colours.

So, this brand I know nothing about is threatening to sue a blogger I know and love for COMPARING COLOURS THAT ARE SIMILAR. They claim that's defamation, and she hasn't said anything bad about them in her posts at all (go back and read it if you haven't)! So now, writing that "this colour is X, this colour is Y, X is 1 coat, Y is 2" is defamation. Great, now I'm going to get sued by all the companies for all the comparison posts I made. Is MAC now going to sue me because I said their Coco pigment was similar to a YDK eyeshadow? Is Bobbi Brown now going to sue me because I said a L'Oreal Hip duo was a better dupe of her product?

Obviously not (or so I hope). The big guns know that that's not defamation - and more importantly, that comparisons are what we do on a daily basis. I compare stuff for you, I tell you what I like better after I've tried it, I show you colours I think might be similar, and hopefully help you save money, or at least make better-informed decisions. It's not defamation, it's all my own opinion, based on my own experience with their product. It's just the nature of blogging - our personal experience with a product is what makes us different from (and in my own opinion, more interesting than) your average beauty magazine loaded with ads, dripping with product placements and filled with slanted editorials. Now I know there are bloggers and blogs which are dripping with ads too, but Squarrell isn't one of them (go take a look at her blog - she doesn't even run GoogleAds). Ginger + Liz obviously has no clue what the nature of blogging is, or for that matter, how to better harness the collective power of the blogosphere to get their brand name out there. Instead they're threatening to sue people for having an opinion. It's like they mixed up their marketing team with their legal team.

Well, obviously Ginger + Liz is going to now make a name for itself, but for all the wrong reasons. I don't think having people associate you with lawsuits is a good thing if you're a nail polish company. They should really hire more PR people and less lawyers (and I hope they don't sue me for saying that). I've never bought anything from them, and now you can bet I never will.