Sephora arrives in Pitesti, and what was supposed to be a promotion campaign before the launch turned into an image crisis for the company.
Pitesti may very well be a city like any other in Romania. It is, at the same time, the place where the “Pitesti experiment” took place, an approach spanning several years, through which the communist regime wanted to “re-educate” people categorized as enemies of the state through physical violence and mental torture.
Ignoring this historical sensibility, ignoring it or forgetting it altogether, the entire decision-making chain at Sephora involved in the launch now came up with a catchy message: “Shit, I heard you like stripes.”
The stripes, of course, are part of Sephora’s brand identity: they are in the logo, they are product categories. Stripes are equally associated with sailors or, more often, with prison. And the toughest of all Romanian prisons is also connected to Pitesti.
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What happened there, between 1949 and 1951, was cataloged as “the most terrible barbarism of the contemporary world” by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. He is the author of “The Gulag Archipelago”, knows a thing or two about brutal prison systems. 101 people died during the years of activity of the cruelest penitentiary, according to the documents of the Memoria Cultural Foundation.
Tortures, physical degradation, mental brutalization were, however, worse than death for many of those who went through the “Pitesti experiment”. Moreover, some of the inmates ended up being torturers for others. They were coordinated by former legionnaire Eugen Țurcanu. He was also made a scapegoat by the communists when they wanted to close the “Pitesti” chapter.
More than 70 years since then, and more than 3 decades since the Revolution, Romania is still trying to make forgotten the moment. This is precisely why Sephora’s approach is all the more serious.
The “Pitesti experiment” is known, documented, never taught and assumed
Before it was Pitesti, it was Suceava. Eugen Țurcanu met Alexandru Bogdanovici there. Both prisoners, both former legionnaires, but also became communists out of opportunism. Once moved to Pitesti, Țurcanu turned into reality a phrase of the then Minister of the Interior Teohari Georgescu according to which in the Romanian People’s Republic the penitentiaries must become “re-education centers”.
Thus, the “brilliant” idea and the one that led to the “Pitesti phenomenon”, was for the victims to become torturers for others.
Everything happened under the supervision and tacit encouragement of the Security, through the deputy director Alexandru Nicolschi. He was supported by deputies Dulgheru and Sepeanu, colonels, political lieutenant Marina, the director of the penitentiary, captain Dumitrescu, colonel Zeller from the General Directorate of Penitentiaries sent directly from the Ministry of the Interior and, of course, the communist party led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.
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They are names that appear in searches, appear in books. But I’m not in school, there are no courses dedicated to the “Pitesti experiment” and there are people who have never been condemned, even if only symbolically, for what happened there.
This is the context in which it is sensible when a brand does joking with stripes and Pitesti. Decades have passed since the facts, but the “Pitesti phenomenon” it was never treated so that all of Romania knows that what happened there happened.
It was only in 2019 that the first film on the subject appeared: “Between torment and amen”. It also hit Netflix in the meantime. In 2023, the “Pitesti Experiment” was launched. There are also books published on this subject, one of which is by Virgil Ierunca (pseudonym of Virgil Untaru). He is one of the first to talk about what happened in Pitesti. He fled the country during communism and, outside, became a voice on Radio Free Europe for those who remained in communist Romania.
There are documents from the Security archives that speak of this moment. Over 14,000, put online in 2014 by CNSAS.
The information is there and it’s good that this is happening. Publicly, however, at the educational, institutional or social level, the “Pitesti experiment” exists only occasionally. For example, now. It’s just that even now there was more talk about what did he do wrong Sephora, instead of what happened in Pitesti.
In Pitesti, there were also torturers, and smaller or bigger bosses involved in the “re-education” process. Romania is not better in this regard either: among the communist torturers, from other penitentiaries, only two were convicted: Ioan Ficior and Alexandru Vișinescu. And they ended up being tried and convicted following media investigations. In other words, the scandal was too big to ignore the cases.
Of course, another thesis was circulated, even by Mihai Demetriade, CNSAS researcher: that legionnaires tortured each other more in Pitesti. And that it was not really an “experiment” orchestrated or allowed by the communists and, in particular, the Securitate. Torture, as Demetriades framed the thesis, “is part of the legionary anatomy”. And in Pitesti they only had, through the prison administration, “the favorable context for this violent episode to develop”.
Yes, there were legionnaires there too. Which doesn’t make the events worth overlooking. And, certainly, there are still many things that are not sufficiently discussed and known about Pitesti and what happened there. Which in itself is a big problem, and lo and behold, it also has consequences when a brand opens a new store and chooses its words very poorly.
Strong essences like in Sephora
After the post talking about stripes in Pitesti, Sephora apologized and said the following: “Our last post […] has been misinterpreted.”
In other words, it’s also people’s fault that they didn’t understand. In the decision-making chain of the communication campaign, it was a “mistake”, but mostly on the part of the public.
François Furet, historian and member of the French Academy, categorized the events in Pitesti as follows: “One of the most terrible experiences of dehumanization that our age has known.”
The details of the torture and abuse there can only inspire disgust, shock and disbelief that such a thing happened. But it happened.
At the level of society, however, despite the books, films, articles, debates and condemnations in certain circles, the phenomenon is always forgotten or overlooked. Perhaps also because all these consumer and information products do not do what a state’s decision can do: to accept a moment as part of its history and ensure that it will not be repeated. An example is the Holocaust. The events at Auschwitz and Pitesti are not comparable from any point of view, but both show you that what man can do to man is even unimaginable.
That is precisely why such historical moments must be remembered, learned, learned, assumed as part of history. So that they are not forgotten. Any store with stripes in the logo or in the brand book can open anywhere, of course, but when they could choose another form of the message, they should do so. To stop blaming “misinterpretations” when it’s just ignorance that’s wrong.
