FASHION giant Missguided has been condemned for encouraging shoppers to visit flood-ravaged Venice.
As residents reel from the worst flooding in half a century, the firm said on social media: “Would rather be having breakfast in Venice @ a babe who needs to go with you.”
The message provided a link to the company’s website, urging users to: “Shop New In.”
Its tactless faux pas comes as the tourist hotspot was submerged by a third huge tidal surge in less than a week, and two people have died.
Unsurprisingly, customers accused the company of being “tone deaf” with its latest marketing ploy.
The backlash came after the company today posted idyllic photos of the city before the flooding.
Flood damage has been estimated at hundreds of millions of euros.
The backlash was so severe the firm deleted the message about 30 minutes after it was posted.
Missguided was contacted for comment after the social media meltdown.
Insensitive much? Marketing team should probably have a meeting about this post.
Karolina Duda
Harriet Rayner was among those enraged by the post, writing: “This makes me kinda mad [sic].
“Venice is currently experiencing serious flooding and instead of posting something to promote environmental awareness, you post a rose tinted image of the city and being ignorant to the situation over there.”
Christina Marie Greenland added: “Not the best destination you could have chosen given the current situation going on over there. Bit ignorant!”
Karolina Duda agreed saying: “Hmm insensitive much? Marketing team should probably have a meeting about this post.”
Rebekah Sykes commented: “Bit of a tone deaf post.”
And Abi Fry said: “Epic fail. Venice is currently experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years.”
Officials yesterday closed historic St. Mark’s Square and stacked sandbags against the Basilica to block salt-laden water from bursting in to the crypt again.
Sunday saw the water peak at nearly five feet (150cm), marking the worst week for the city since official tide statistics were produced in 1872.
In Venice’s tourist centre, many store owners in the swanky area around St. Mark’s emptied their shops.
Others tried to protect their wares by placing them as high as possible and used water pumping machines to clear out their shops.
In one luxury boutique, employees used water vacuums and big squeegee mops to keep the brackish lagoon waters from advancing.
Tides have risen above 140cm several times since Monday, including Tuesday’s high tide of 187cm (6.14ft).
CORRUPTION
In normal conditions, tides of 80-90 cm are seen as high but manageable.
Venice’s mayor has estimated that the flooding damage will run into hundreds of millions of Euros.
Italian officials have declared a state of emergency for the area.
They say Venice is both sinking into the mud and facing rising sea levels due to climate change.
It doesn’t help that the city’s Moses flood defence project is still not operational despite nearly two decades of construction.
The corruption-riddled underwater barrier system has sucked up at least 5 billion euros of public funding and was supposed to be working by 2011.
Venetians are fed up with what they see as inadequate responses to the city’s mounting problems: record-breaking flooding, environmental and safety threats from cruise ship traffic and the burden on services from over-tourism.
Why has Venice been flooding?
St Mark’s Square – Venice’s centrepiece – now floods more than 60 times annually.
This is up from four times a year in 1900.
Some researchers have warned that Venice will disappear by the year 2100, write oceanography experts Carl Amos and Georg Umgiesser in The Conversation.
They say that the increase in flooding is “due to the combined effects of land subsidence, causing the city to sink, and climate change causing the global sea level to rise.”
The city’s solution, Moses, an unfinished scheme of 78 storm gates, “is likely to cause damage to the ecological health of the surrounding lagoon, and could have no effect on Venice’s preservation”.
Venice is built on 118 small islands drained by a network of canals, and located within a tidal lagoon.
Its sea level has risen by a total of 26cm since 1870.
Plus the sea level is still increasing by 2.4mm a year, the experts say, damaging the city’s buildings with salt and damp.
They warn: “As a result, with a sea level rise of 50cm, the storm gates will need to close almost daily to protect the city from flooding.”
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