Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James slammed for teacher dress giveaway gone wrong

Yikes, y’all. On April 2, Reese Witherspoon‘s fashion brand Draper James announced it would be gifting free dresses to teachers to thank them for their tireless efforts during the coronavirus pandemic. Education professionals were directed to an online application form with a deadline, and told that “winners” would be notified the following week and sent …

Yikes, y’all.

On April 2, Reese Witherspoon‘s fashion brand Draper James announced it would be gifting free dresses to teachers to thank them for their tireless efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

Education professionals were directed to an online application form with a deadline, and told that “winners” would be notified the following week and sent their dresses “while supplies last.”

But while Draper James’ initial announcement was well-intentioned and met with much fanfare, the 30-person company — which had planned to distribute 250 dresses in total — seemed to have underestimated just how many teachers would take them up on the offer. There are more than three million public school teachers in the US alone.

According to the New York Times, “the application form crashed almost immediately. Just days after the original Instagram post appeared, it had been viewed more than 400,000 times. Teachers were emailing one another and sharing it online. By the close of the application period, Draper James had almost one million applications — which was approximately seven times the total number of dresses they had sold in 2019.”

Now, teachers who assumed they were entering a giveaway rather than a raffle — and who had to share photos of their school IDs and their work email addresses in order to apply — are sharing their frustration on social media.

“Out of 535 teachers on a social media page on FB, not even one got a free @draperjames dress! What in the what??,” one person tweeted. “All of us received codes for either 20-30% off codes. Can’t even afford the dresses with a discount! Great marketing ploy!🤪🤷‍♀️”

Added another, “Wow. @draperjames clearly doesn’t know how much teachers make. ‘We love teachers! Here’s 30% off our ridiculously expensive dresses.’ If I’m spending over $100 on an ‘everyday dress,’ it better also grade essays.”

“We felt like we moved too quickly and didn’t anticipate the volume of the response,” Draper James’ senior vice president for brand marketing and creative, Marissa Cooley, told the Times. “We were really overwhelmed. It was way more volume than the company had ever seen. We expected the single digit thousands.”

According to the publication, applicants received a follow-up email from Draper James last weekend, stating that the brand had made a donation to an organization supplying teachers and students with school necessities.

The company added that it was “actively working on expanding our offerings, both internally and with outside retail partners who were also inspired by your stories and want to join in honoring your community, and we ask for your patience while we organize this effort.”

A rep for Draper James did not immediately respond to Page Six Style’s request for comment.

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