MTV Responds To Abercrombie's Jersey Shore Protest

Following Abercrombie & Fitch's offer of "substantial payment" to cast members of MTV's Jersey Shore, specifically Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, to stop wearing their brand, MTV has bitten back with an "Open Rebuttal" to the preppy clothing company.

“It’s a clever PR stunt,” MTV’s Lisa Chudnofsky said in a statement, “and we’d love to work with them on other ways they can leverage Jersey Shore to reach the largest youth audience on television.” The premiere of the fourth season of Jersey Shore on August 4 nabbed 8.8 million viewers, MTV's third most-watched telecast of all time (behind two other episodes of Jersey Shore from season three).

"Oh, Abercrombie, what kind of snowball hath y'all set in motion?" Chudnofsky continued, in a tone of gloating irony. "We hate to add to the avalanche of publicity that A&F is currently eating up at the expense of our innocent reality TV icons (who declined to comment because they were too busy getting more famous) — mostly because that was the whole point of this shenanigan, wasn't it? — but we're all family here at MTV, and no one messes with our 'Situation.' There are plenty of neon sweatpants in the sea of franchised fashion, so we encourage him to take the money. And donate it all to Ed Hardy."

Cast members Sorrentino and Pauly Delvecchio did not shirk the opportunity to hit back, either. "Looks like Abercrombie got themselves into a Situation!" Sorrentino tweeted along with a link about Abercrombie's almost 10 percent drop in stock prices. Delvecchio posted a picture of an Abercrombie t-shirt emblazoned with Jersey Shore's popular phrase "GTL" (gym, tan and laundry). "Hmmm if they don't want us to wear those clothes, why make GTL shirts," he tweeted. "#urPRsux."