Sex Sells at Abercrombie & Fitch
...Sort Of
The Boy: So the attached photograph is of the boy who offends my PG-13 sensibilities. Granted Black Friday is supposed to be a "Santa" shopping day but the fact that I had to look at this tall, lanky boy in all his glory was a little bit less than couth. Furthermore he was the greeter! He and his counterpart female version stood tall at the front of the store.
The Girl: Camera shy but no less on display was the girl they put out. This girl was totally average looking but the way she was dressed (oversized flannel shirt, baggy jeans, unkempt hair) made her look even worse. If the Abercrombie & Fitch marketing people think that any straight guy anywhere wants to have sex with any dumpy looking girl wearing oversized clothing, they're bonkers! I'm going to hazard a guess that this girl is supposed to represent the "morning after" look; but really? They have good clothes; how about the night before look? You know, get this girl up in something kind of hot looking and really draw me into your store! This girl was probably not bad looking when she was more put together, but the way she was dressed and just standing next to this half-clothed guy had the exact opposite effect. I get it; the guy is supposed to bring in the gay male/girlfriend traffic but this dumpy looking girl repelled me from their door! Where I could see girls and gays being attracted to this boy, I could in no way understand the motivation behind putting this girl out on display...unless the dumpy looking girl is supposed to make the female shoppers feel better about themselves as they shop for their boyfriends. Maybe that was the clothing retailer's intention.
Sex in advertising is nothing new; it's not going away today and it's not going away tomorrow. But how little a successful company like Abercrombie & Fitch thinks of their straight male customers is kind of offensive. How much Abercrombie & Fitch think of themselves is a little mad!
Published by Jesse Schmitt
Back in New York. Still searching. View profile
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13 Comments
Post a Commentsummer, as in black friday falls in the beginning of the winter season hence the longer top and pants, not sure why they were baggy though.if you enter the store you would notice on one side a poster of a topless man, on the other side a topless woman kissing a man, showing just enough breast for them to get away with it, and on the tables, photos of topless women covering there breast with their arms. they have been using this kind of marketing for decades, its been working, well enough for them to survive this long and to be able to expand their company to foreign location like Milan, Tokyo, London. etc.it sells! your article came off as insulting and insulting to the young man who im sure was just trying to make some extra cash to pay some bills, but i understand that you were not in any way trying to be insulting and i apologize if i said anything that offended you. i recommend you take a stroll past the store mid summer, may suit your heterosexual instincts better. take care
you made yourself clear, let me include a few links that show the latest marketing ad photos A&F display in their store:http://www.dazereader.com/abercrombie-va-girl.jpg
http://www.geradts.com/anil/br/vol_006_no_001/reviews/books/book003/233.jpg
and here ill include a shot done but for obvious reason can not be displayed in the store:http://www.mizzack.com/gh.jpg
the last link may suit your sensibilities but again, could not be displayed. A&F has an unusual sense in marketing(how to sell their product) and the one they have been using mainly for decades, has been shirtless men, you can search the internet for other photos taken for abercrombies catalog that include two naked men holding each other. they try to make every body feel welcomed and included when entering their store. granted id love to see a topless women standing in front of the store but that wouldnt be very legal. we have had women in bikinis being used as greeters, but thats usually during the spring and su
ALLOW ME TO SAY AGAIN ONE MORE TIME JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR. I AM OFFENDED AS A HETEROSEXUAL MALE THAT THE MARKETING DEPT OF A&F THOUGHT SO LITTLE OF ME THAT SOME GIRL-IN-OVERSIZED-CLOTHES (IE MORNING AFTER CLOTHES) WOULD APPEAL TO ME AS MUCH AS THE FLESH OF A MAN APPEALED TO WOMEN AND HOMOSEXUAL MEN. I HAVE MANY FRIENDS WHO ARE GAY; I'VE CHAMPIONED IN DEFENSE OF THE PLIGHT OF PROP 8 AND OTHER GAY ISSUES HERE ON ASSOCIATED CONTENT. SO IT'S NOT THE EYE CANDY ON DISPLAY NOR THE GAY LIFESTYLE WHICH OFFENDS ME; ITS HOW LITTLE I WAS CONSIDERED BY A&F.
Ah Phil, were it that you knew me and obviously you don't. Again, I wish you'd actually READ my article; you'd see I was offended by the stark contrast in the obvious sexiness of the guy on display and the obvious DUMPIESS of the girl on display. It says so in the article. I don't know why you've got this vendetta against me; or that you think I've got some vendetta against you; but surely you can appreciate this forum where you are so free to express your opinion. That was all I was doing in my article. I wish you well in your pursuits, but the truth of what was written is far deeper seeded and less obvious than the black and white tones you paint me in.
reading your article i can come to the conclusion that you are a douche bag! the type of guy who comments under his breath to his buddies whenever you see someone wearing something or acting differently to what you consider to be normal. the world is full of things your going to disagree on, get used to it. its what makes the world go round. welcome to the 21st century! cant wait to read your next article about how you saw two men kissing in public and how it "offended" your heterosexual male instincts........please.
This is vwarre....you wrote in your article that you were offended...now how can something like that possibly offend you? i can see how it may not be sexy to you, but offensive? so how is one suppose to come to the conclusion that you were simply trying to illustrate what straight men find sexy? Do you represent every heterosexual male? do you think all men share the same likes and dislikes? from your reply, it seems that you do and once again showing me just how ignorant one can be. I take offense to this article not just because i too had to stand in front of the store with my shirt open, which by the way, thank you for congratulating me on my success, i appreciate it! but i take offense to this because you singled out that young man you took a photo of to display on the internet above your ignorant article. Im sure if he were to read what you wrote about him, being "tall and lanky", im sure he would be offended as well. im glad i dont know you on a personal level Jesse because after
I blame A&F, the always shifting demographics about what is "sexy" and customers who shop there for this tragedy. I was not in fact shopping there; I was just passing through. (and no I'm not closted or a homophobe at all. if you knew me you'd know how foolish that is to say. shame on you for being so openly bigoted for no reason!)
Hey VWarre; well thanks for reading part of my article. Congratulations on your success as a piece of eye candy. If you'd read the whole piece you would have UNDERSTOOD why I said the display offended my heterosexual male sensabilites. While the male in the picture was primed and ready to go; the female was average, dumpy looking, and wearing oversized clothing which covered her whole self. I agree that A&F uses hot men to draw in men and women; the commentary was not meant to offend YOU, the eye candy. It was more of an instruction on what straight men find sexy, what straight women find sexy and how the two don't really cross hairs. I wish I'd been able to get an image of the girl to better illustrate my point, but like you say I DO in fact have a life and wasn't going to stand around all day trying to angle in a shot of this girl. Way to take offense though at something which wasn't saying anything bad about you at all. I blame A&F, the always shifting demographics about what is "se
instead of writing 2 pages of why you were upset about Abercrombie and Fitch's portray of a male model in front of the store. Get a life and stop worrying about how others make their money!
time you step foot on a beach or a boardwalk where men are walking around completely shirtless, some in shape, others not. Do you quickly walk past the magazine isle bc your afraid you will see a mens health magazine with a shirtless man on it? I wouldn't believe you for one second if you told me if you were given the opportunity to stand there with your shirt open, get over $300 worth of clothes on top of the money, that you would say no. The majority of abercrombie's customers are female, and the males that shop there already know what the style is about and know that they often have shirtless models in front of the store greeting. So if your so offended by this, i suggest you either look in a different direction while entering the store or you dont shop there at all, easy as that. I can not believe that you honestly got so upset that you even took a photo to post, look at the photo.....how much skin can you even see?? you are pathetic and i strongly suggest you pick up a hobby in