Sexy Little Girls Promoted by Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie and Fitch has done it again - pushed the envelope on clothing for young people.

Until an outcry from parents and concerned citizens, their March sales pitches included padded, "push-up" bikini tops targeting girls 7 to 12 years old.

After pressure and negative press from organizations including One Million Moms, although the mom organization says e-mails came back "undeliverable," A&F changed the target market to girls 12 and up.

The "pushed up" description was removed from an advertisement, but it remains to be seen if the smaller sizes will be discontinued in shops. Before and after ad photos can be seen at a fashion news website called Styleite.

In a petition drive at the Parent's Television Council website, PTC asks the question, are the padded bikini bras [which push the breast flesh upward] even appropriate for 12-year-olds?

The PTC petition also shows that A&F's Board of Directors includes a U.S. ambassador to France and the Czech Republic, and a director of a girls' school who has previously spoken out against media exploitation of women. PTC calls these board members' judgment questionable if they allow A&F to keep selling the bras, even if "only" marketed to girls at a minimum age of 12.

A&F navigates through negative press often for their revealing photos of young people. Posters showing boys' upper buttocks drew fire in 2008, and Abercrombie kids' catalog photos featuring girls and boys who look to be only 14 or 15 years old in suggestive poses have drawn heat from parents' and citizens' groups.

In this latest campaign for the padded kiddie bikini tops, an elderly woman was issued a trespassing citation for holding a poster outside a southern California Abercrombie & Fitch store saying, "Pedophiles sexualizing little girls thru clothing."

According to the Orange County Register, the citation was later retracted, and the woman received an apology from the store's management team.

Mall walkers passing A&F store windows here in Tampa, Fla., recently encountered giant posters of a boy looking to be 15 or 16 with his pants open down to the place where hair would begin.

Abercrombie & Fitch sales appear unaffected by negative press:

The seeming exploitation of pubescence hasn't hurt sales among A&F's target group - teens and pre-teens between 12 and 18, which says something for the money they are spending from their allowances.

According to the website retailsales.com, A&F is among the Top Three money-making teen-target stores, raking in a net income of $150 million for the 2010 fiscal year. The other two stores are Aeropastale ($231 million) and American Eagle Outfitters ($141 million), with less controversial reputations.

An Internet search didn't reveal any direct press release from A&F regarding the girls' bras.

Sources:
One Million Moms e-mail effort;
Parents Television Council petition;
"Abercrombie and Fitch posters spark controversy" Canadian Content, Feb. 2008.
"Teen Retail Throwdown: Battle for the Cool Kids," Retailsales.com;
"Abercrombie wants your 7-year-old to wear a push-up bikini," Julia Rubin, Styleite.com, 3/26/11.
"Woman cited for Abercrombie bikini protest..." Hang Nguyen, Orange County Register, 3/30/11.
-Abercrombie kids website.