Reese Witherspoon Slammed After Dress Giveaway For Teachers Backfires

Reese Witherspoon is in hot water with teachers over her company’s botched giveaway.

The Little Fires Everywhere actress’ clothing brand, Draper James, hosted a giveaway on Instagram earlier this month offering to give teachers free dresses if they entered the sweepstakes on Instagram. The giveaway was launched to celebrate teachers amid the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic but unfortunately, it backfired: hundreds of thousands of teachers were disappointed by the empty-handed outcome.

In the Instagram post, Draper James encouraged applicants to complete a form to be entered into the giveaway — consequently being subscribed to the brand’s email list — and that teachers who won the giveaway would be notified via email. Although Draper James did specify the offer is valid only “while supplies last,” what entrants apparently didn’t realize was they had merely signed up for a raffle, not to receive a free dress as so many assumed.

According to The New York Times, the brand had only 250 dresses to hand out, but one million teachers had signed up by the time the application deadline closed. In an attempt to explain the situation, Draper James Senior VP Marissa Cooley admitted: “We felt like we moved too quickly and didn't anticipate the volume of the response. We were really overwhelmed. It was way more volume than the company had ever seen. We expected the single-digit thousands.”

Since the backlash, Draper James has apparently sent coupons to those who applied, and said they're “actively working on expanding our offerings.”

Even so, it didn’t take long before teachers took to social media to express their outrage and disappointment about the contest, with some slamming Witherspoon and Draper James for “false advertising.”

“The Draper James free giveaway of dresses was completely false advertising it’s insane,” one user wrote.

Another user tweeted, “It looks like @DraperJames used #coronavirus to pull a #baitandswitch on #Americasteachers for #publicity and access to names and emails of thousands. @ReeseW , please tell me you're better than this.”

Photo: Getty Images