Friday, May 23, 2008

Dear American Apparel,

I am tired of your lame ads. I'd appreciate it if you could come up with a new campaign. I apologize for not championing your apparently uber-feminist real-size model schtick, but I'm sick of looking at their real-size asses hanging out of the sweatpants they're supposedly advertising. I'm not paying $60 for her ass, I'm paying $60 for the sweatpants. So it would be nice to see how they look on. Also, there's a reason most fashion photographers don't employ a hard flash against a stark background: it's unpleasant to look at it. I know you think it's novel and maybe even "street" (your claim to fame, of course, is your street cred), but it's usually just ugly. Besides, Juergen Teller did it first, for Marc Jacobs. And seriously, I feel like all of this should have gone without saying. Now, in all honesty, I doubt I'll stop buying your Deep-V Summer T's in all variety of colors, whether you change your ads or not, but it would be cool if I didn't have to see your stale crap every time I turn over a copy of Vice magazine. Okay? Thanks.

Much love,

Julia


16 comments:

Running the streets and trails of Dallas, Texas! said...

I swear the back-peddling of feminism, esp. in advertising, is spinning so fast that I'm getting wind burn.

xB4SsXb0yx said...

American Apparel modeling is just disgusting and wrong. A thirteen year old girl could go their website looking for a nice tank top or pair of socks to buy and on the front page they could see a pictures of bare-breasted women. This is just sick and wrong. The models apply for the job and in 10 minutes they are thrown into a white room, pretty much just wearing socks and loincloth and cameras are pointing at her groin. This is just absurd! All the pictures they take aren't even made into ads. The too "revealing" ones are probably sent to fat business man who can just jack off all day.

Anonymous said...

sex haters !
You're so easy to spot.

The 13 year old girl might see a bare-breasted woman, good forbid, a girl see a woman naked, she might know what's coming. Gotta keep her in the dark about her creepy gross booby body.
Anyway there are no actual "nude" ads in american apparel. Where in US mags would they advertise? Adult mags? There's nowhere else. And they advertise in all the mags.

The saddest part, nobody knows what beauty is anymore. AA ads are supposed to recall heroin chic, which was chic. This is just gross. They look like cadavers in underwear, not hot sexy women. You don't get that.
But then again, you don't want to. If they were hot sexy women with an exciting pose, you'd probably complain about how it objectifies and degrades women, by not keeping them in respectable burqas so dirty men can't see any goodies and would then value their "mind".
Thanks for posting the pictures though. I needed a resource to jack off to, unfortunately, these AA ads are so disgusting I can't. I just can't.
I'm gonna go look at some older magazines with sexy ads the way they used to do them, fun and exciting.

Anonymous said...

skinnygorillaAlphamale...yes there ARE completely bare breasted women on the very first page of their websites, adn you know whats shes "selling"? jeans! if you really think thats ok, your deranged! yea, its important for girls to know what is coming when they grow up, but they should be learning that in school and from their parents, not from sexual adds "selling clothes". I dont care what you think, it is NOT ok for my 11 year old sister to see those pictures!

Anonymous said...

Id been hearing alot about your ads, so i went to google and looked you up on images, and what i saw there was terrible! But it wasnt the worst, seeing how bad the pics were on google, i decided to see just how far your inappropriateness went. so i went to your website, and what did i see? Bare breasted women, on the first page! Girls with hands down their pants groping themselves, sucking on their figures! Are you kidding me?? I cant believe that if my little 11 year old sister heard that A.A. had good clothes and she went to your website that she would see THAT!!!!! I dont think we should make it seem like sexuality is a bad thing, but it has a place! And kids should NOT be learning about it off of magazine and internet ads! We also should NOT make it OK to look at women only as sexual items which is what these ads are doing.
Showing naked women "selling clothes"! I cant communicate my disgust and disappointment, if you cant sell your clothes without making it overtly sexual to the point that it is inappropriate, then your clothes prolly arent that great! There is a number of stores that sell amazing clothes, very "similar" to yours that do it without flashing boobs everywhere!

La Coterie said...

I have to disagree with you on this one. It's their style, and how they want to present their clothes. It's like Terry Richardson's photos for Tom Ford, they're just as pornographic as AA's photos, with body parts hanging out and showing maybe too much. But that's the style, the way they want it to be, and I look at AA's posters kind of as art. And it includes people, YOU might as well end up as a model for AA, because everyone is allowed to send in their photo of themselves in AA clothing. But hey, that's my opinion, and your opinion is that you think it's discusting. But AA has a certain style, and that style is what it is, AA wouldn't be the same without the cheezy photos of ordinary people posing a bit too much and bold way.

Think about it, if the clothes were presented with skinny supermodels and perfect faces and bodies, wouldn't that be wrong too? No matter what the brands try to do now at days, it's simply not good enough for everyone, and not everyone wants the most beautiful people and models to show their clothes because it's the ordinary people (like us) that's going to wear them, so they show people how the clothes look worned by people like us.

Julia said...

It would seem that almost everyone misses the point of this post. I am primarily complaining about the lack of originality and the false claims to feminism... not even so much the nudity. I don't find the female body disgusting or in need of being hidden. I just think it's a shitty ad campaign and I'm sick of women who think it's a huge leap for woman-kind when someone with thighs appears in a magazine... even if those thighs are spread.

La Coterie said...

How are they not original? Have you seen a picture of a girl in tights showing her arse before like you've posted?

Julia said...

I have. Versace did it ages ago. In fact, all of the Italian designers have worked with extensive nudity in their ads. And actually, it was pretty uninteresting then, too, haha!

La Coterie said...

Well, everything is relative. Depends on the person judging the ad, and maybe it's just the fact that we like different things. You are perhaps a bit more conservative than me, but hey, that's not a bad thing ;) Good luck with your blog :)

iFrequentAllNightDancePartiesInMyAMERICAN_APPAREL said...

first of all this is to all the other people commenting. It fucking bull shit to say that these models are "disgusting" (xB4SsXb0yx) cause they are NORMAL! that may be hard for you to wrap your little brain around, but lets try no to act to retarded mk? For that matter if "A thirteen year old girl could go their website looking for a nice tank top or pair of socks to buy " then she probably saw one of their adds then she should know their website isn't gonna be a total 180 of their adds. And ps if its a 13 year old girl you think that maybe she's not ever gonna look in the mirror.
here's to NowheresChild: fuck off and if you know thats in the adds don't let your 11 year old sister look, be a little respnsible. And if you learned all about whats comming from your parents and in school i feel bad for you."There is a number of stores that sell amazing clothes, very "similar" to yours that do it without flashing boobs everywhere!" ha ha maybe you should go on one of thouse sites and stop bitching about how your little sister saw so boobs cause its no like she's gonna grow any. NAWT!! And they have partially naked people in their adds to stand out and show their own style so maybe you should get some.

Rick said...

I think they've crossed the line from sexy to porn, which is too bad. In the beginning, it was creative, eye-catching stuff.

I don't think it takes a "sex hater" (whatever that is) to see that there's a difference between creativity and jack-off material.

Fight said...

Wow this is pathetic. If you guys don't like the adds then don't look at the adds. In other words ignore them. You want to worry about something then try worrying about the economy.

Anonymous said...

on their website and in all their advertisements, they have girls that look under 16 half naked, or just wearing a pair of socks and their poses are very suggestive, is disgusting.

Anonymous said...

yes, they totally crossed the line!!! I heard things about this company but never saw their advertisements until today... I can't believe they are allowed to show pictures like this on their website, and don't understand how this country does not see this is absolutely wrong - those girls are 13!!!! these are not flirty, cute advertisements, this is pornography!!!! I am just afraid their fashion business is a curtain for something more serious going on behind the closed doors - prostitution!!!

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