“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.” – Thomas Jefferson
Kristina Dell at Time noted the Real-World Problems of Second Life when shoppers at American Apparel were gunned down by a group called the Second Life Liberation Army last year. The act, albeit it virtual, probably had something to do with dissatisfaction about the site’s increasing commercialization, but Meghan Daum might beg to differ.
Meghan Daum writes a fantastic column at the Los Angeles Times and recently opined on the ick factor of American Apparel. She writes:
I’ve been looking at American Apparel’s advertisements for years now, and I’m still not sure what I think about them. My feelings are another story. I loathe them — and not just because the super-hip, low-fi, can’t-be-bothered-to-look-professional-because-that’s-so-uncool aesthetic is emblematic of everything that’s irritating about a certain segment of contemporary urban youth culture. I loathe them because I believe they’re meant to evoke pornography, sometimes even child pornography. The fact that a) this cannot be proved, and b) you can’t say it without sounding like a prudish old biddy, drives me crazy.
Photo:chicken scrawl, Creative Commons, Flickr
She continues on about Dov Charney, the company’s 38-year-old founder and chief executive, by noting the praise he’s received from immigration rights groups for his anti-sweatshop practices. That’s the other side of the coin. He’s also known for sexual harassment lawsuits hurled his way by a number of employees along with peculiar behavior reported somewhat consistently in the press.
Daum isn’t the only one writing about the ongoing campaign. Jim Straub at Clamor adds:
What other clothing company mixes trashy sex and manufacturing information (“Made in Downtown LA”) in its ads? Like everything else about its business, American Apparel’s marketing showcases the bizarre contradictions of postmodern consumer capitalism. The company possesses a downtown textile factory straight out of the ’40s, a sexploitation ad campaign from the ’70s, and a marketing strategy so sophisticated it almost seems to come from the future. Old-world manufacturing paternalism meets sexy transnational marketing: has American Apparel vertically integrated different eras of capitalism?
As a side note: American Apparel is privately held today, but plans to merge with Endeavor Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: EDA) during the second half of 2007. American Apparel is capitalism. Maybe not at its finest, but capitalism nonetheless.
Straub continues:
The contradictions that underlie American Apparel certainly go deeper than the incongruous messages of their ubiquitous advertisements. But a certain consistent logic is evident, not only with Charney’s business, but in all companies that have staked their brand image on socially conscious consumption and ethical trend-making. Companies like Starbucks and Whole Foods have also climbed their first few rungs up the ladder of corporate success by appealing to liberal professionals on the basis of a hip image and social responsibility.
Daum concludes:
Like Charney himself, American Apparel’s ads are simultaneously defensible and indefensible. That’s what makes them manipulative, especially to the progressive-minded person. No matter how vigorously she might defend free speech or hold forth about the transgressive appeal of billboard art, something about these ads puts her in the uncomfortable position of knowing just what former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart meant when he said hard-core pornography was hard to define ‘but I know it when I see it.’ And if there’s anything a progressive-minded person can’t stand, it’s having anything in common with a Republican judge.
So where am I going with this? Daum said it best: “It’s icky for sure, but is it wrong?” You decide.
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Nina blogs about money at Queercents.
Disclosure: I do not own stock in Endeavor Acquisition Corp. But I did view pictures of Dov Charney ringing the closing bell at Nasdaq during NY Fashion Week last year. He was an outfit shy of fabulous! Someone alert Queer Eye.
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