American Apparel is best known for its basic, solid-color cotton knitwear manufactured 100% in Los Angeles, USA. The idea of this company sounds ideal. Consumers know exactly where their products are coming from and know it’s completely sweatshop free. Seems like an ideal place to shop, right? What if I told you that most of the advertisements this store uses are sexist, inappropriate, and borderline pornographic? That this company sells children’s clothing alongside advertisements of half naked women? That several sexual-harassment lawsuits involving ex-employees led to the dismissal of the CEO of American Apparel, Dov Charney, in June of 2014? Do you still think American Apparel is an ideal place to shop?
American Apparel advertised a “Unisex Plaid Flannel Long Sleeve Button-Up with Pocket.” Naturally, since it was unisex, they showed both a male and a female wearing it. The shirt is buttoned almost completely to the top and is styled with jeans in the male’s picture. But in the female’s shot, the shirt is completely unbuttoned exposing her bare chest and all she is wearing on the bottom is her underwear. This advertisement clearly oversexualizes the female model by showing her in practically nothing while the male model is completely clothed. The Local, a Swedish news site, spoke to blogger Emelie Eriksson about a post she wrote involving this advertisement. Eriksson tells The Local, “They want to be seen and they know sex sells, but they don’t think about how degrading these pictures are for women.” And she is completely true. Most of the semi-pornographic advertisements for American Apparel are not of men at all. Almost all of them feature half naked women. The company has learned that semi-pornographic images of women on their advertisements increases sales and although that’s great for the company, it’s wrong and incredibly degrading to not only the woman in the advertisement, but women all around the world.
American Apparel also advertises a “Unisex Oversized Fisherman Turtleneck Sweater.” This ad features a model named Trudy wearing an oversized grey sweater and nothing else. The model is angled in a position in which the camera can see all of her leg and most of her behind. Though this advertisement is less revealing than most, it was this one that was banned in the UK because the Advertising Standards Authority thought the model’s pose was “gratuitous...overtly sexual and that it demeaned women.” Though other ads were found more provocative, this one was inappropriate enough for the UK to ban it.
American Apparel prides itself upon being sweatshop free and having an equal pay for all workers. Though the ideas and values of American Apparel seem valid, their nudity and oversexualization of females in their advertisements makes the public see the company in a bad light. If American Apparel didn’t have such inappropriate advertisements, maybe people wouldn’t second guess buying products from them. Over the past five years of sexual-harassment lawsuits against the CEO and banned advertisements all over the world, shares in the company have fallen 84 percent. American Apparel needs to realize that more and more customers will find out about these scandals. If the company doesn’t change its ways, they could be gone forever.
