French Connection is a clothing company that originated in the United Kingdom, but is now worldwide. It was founded in 1969 and sells menswear, womenswear, childrenwear and accessories aimed at a youthful demographic.
In April 1997, French Connection began branding their clothes 'fcuk' (always written in lower case). Though they insisted it was an acronym for French Connection United Kingdom, its similiarity to the word fuck caused controversy. French Connection fully exploited this and printed out t-shirts with messages such as 'fcuk this', 'high Mile fcuk', 'fcuk me', 'too busy to fcuk' and more. The company recently announced that the fcuk label is to be phased out.
French Connection has distributing stores worldwide. It predominately sells its clothing through its own stores, though many other shops stock its ranges. In the United States, their fcuk brand has been extremely controversial: many stores, such as Neiman Marcus and Robinson's May, refuse to carry the brand, while many parents argue that the shirt's messages could be of harm to their children.
External link
French Connection (http://www.frenchconnection.com/)
A visit to the FCUK website, www.fcuk.com, reveals a Flash-based site somewhat unfinished (at the time of this review, some pages were either down or announced as "coming soon"), but nonetheless, like the FCUK product, designed with flair.
FCUK's audiences in each major market may display a range of attitudes when confronted with the provocatively acronymed four-letter mark -- to the point of anti-corporate activism if sensitivities are hurt.
In fact FCUK is indeed perceived as particularly styling among the 14 to 17 year old segment, according to the Portman Group, a British drinks industry panel.
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