America’s sweetheart, Reese Witherspoon, isn’t known for controversies, so it was surprising to learn that she and her clothing company, Draper James, are being sued for misleading our nation’s teachers.
In April, the 44-year-old “Little Fires Everywhere” actress announced she was offering a free dress for teachers around the country struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News reported. Witherspoon quickly found herself on the receiving end of a backlash when teachers realized she was only giving away a very limited number of dresses.
Now she’s being hit with a class-action lawsuit from three women who claim she benefited from the giveaway even though teachers did not, TMZ reported.
The clothing company made their offer on Instagram, writing “Dear Teachers: We want to say thank you. During quarantine we see you working harder than ever to educate our children. To show our gratitude, Draper James would like to give teachers a free dress.”
“To apply, complete the form at the link in bio before this Sunday, April 5th, 11:59 PM ET. (Offer valid while supplies last – winners will be notified on Tuesday, April 7th,)” the post continued.
The offer clearly stated that it was only valid “while supplies last,” but the lawsuit states that it wasn’t clear there were only 250 dresses available in the giveaway. Meanwhile, teachers were required to provide personal information to enter the giveaway, including their education employment ID info.
“The women suing point out that the total cost of the 250 dresses to be given away would only come out to an ‘estimated paltry $12,500 in actual cost’ to Reese and her company … ‘at a time when other individuals of [Reese] Witherspoon’s renown were offering millions of dollars to COVID-19 victims,’” TMZ reported.
The lawsuit also alleged that Witherspoon benefitted from increased publicity due to the miniscule giveaway with mentions on “Today” and “Good Morning America.”
Theane Evangelis, attorney for Draper James, told TMZ that the lawsuit was frivolous.
“Draper James looks forward to defending this case, to continuing its efforts to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions made by teachers during this time of need, and to being vindicated in court,” she continued.
Marissa Cooley, Draper James’ senior vice president for marketing and creative departments, previously discussed the shortage of dresses with The New York Times.
“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,” she told the outlet.
The Times also reported that the application form “crashed” almost immediately and that nearly 1 million applications were received, meaning teachers had a tiny chance of actually receiving a dress.
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