People are up in arms over a risqué photo featured as part of American Apparel'sback-to-school campaign. The controversial campaign features a photo of what appears to be a teenage girl bending over into a car with her nalgitas on display. The pic was posted on the brand's UK Instagram account this week, and immediately removed amidst rampant backlash. Luckily, one quick-clicking Twitter user was able to capture the shot before it came down.
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'School days' and 'bts [back to school]' – Instagram image was removed but see below and same skirt image on site pic.twitter.com/mVbzPVXt3F
— Em (@anygirlfriday) August 7, 2014
As expected, Twitter users lambasted the brand for perpetuating "dangerous misogyny" and "rampant sexism." Others went as far as to compare the campaign, which is targeted at high school aged girls, "child pornography." To say the least, people were shocked–just SHOCKED–that a clothing company would stoop so low as to use sex to sell clothing to teens.
I, however, am decidedly less shocked. American Apparel is not in the business of selling shirts, pants and underwear; they're in the business of selling sex. Take a quick glimpse at their website and you'll see women wearing one, maybe two, skintight items of clothing, and that's all. For Bob's sake, they even sell a shirt called Lolita on their website. Basically, risqué fashion is their niche, so of course they're not going to conform to such social norms as featuring actual clothing in their ads. In fact, it's almost expected that they'd commission the sort of campaign that would fuel "Lolita fantasies."
Sadly, this approach seems to work for the brand. Take a step back and consider what this recent campaign has done for the brand. We're all talking about American Apparel, we're clicking on their photos, and we're visiting the site. We're giving them free publicity. Jeez, we're probably even making the brand look like a rebellious bad boy–the kind some teens are inclined to flock to. Ugh.
But let me be clear: I don't agree with the campaign in the least. I don't care that American Apparel has built its brand on the premise that sex sells; they crossed the line when they began to try and sell sex to teens. I know that many of them are probably already getting their freak on and whatnot, but that doesn't mean we should be exploiting their sexuality for profit.
Image via @anygirlfriday/Instagram
