American Apparel has been faced with great controversy over its latest “Back to School” advertising campaign. Most notably, the company has faced accusations of displaying child pornography.
The “Back to School” campaign exhibits a collection of skimpy miniskirts. According to the Daily Mail, American Apparel posted a photo of a model wearing a plaid miniskirt on its UK Instagram account on Wednesday, August 6th. In the image, a woman bends over a car with some of her buttocks revealed. The Daily Mail also mentioned that the tagline for the ad in the lookbook was, “Your first assignment is to dress accordingly.”
Many took to Twitter to voice their opinions on the controversial ad. Some labeled it as “objectifying” while others called it “underage porn.” One Twitter user, @anygirlfriday, wrote, “American Apparel – their ‘back to school’ skirts fuelling Lolita fantasies and rampant sexism a plenty.”
Jenna Mullins, reporter for E! Online, discussed the situation, stating: “The reason why we think this photo is so creepy (besides the obvious) is that there are 20 different ways to showcase the skirt in a sexy way that doesn’t involve a girl bending over. In fact, we don’t really know what that skirt looks like, because all we can see is what’s going on underneath the skirt.”
Reports from Metro have said that the image has been removed. Nonetheless, the American Apparel website still features the collection with images that feature women in tiny skirts and crop tops.
The store has faced similar backlash in the past. In 2009, American Apparel had a campaign that was banned for using imagery that could be construed as sexualizing children. In addition, the company used a young, topless model in promotion of “natural beauty” in 2011. Since founder and CEO of the company, Dov Charney, was removed as president and chief executive for American Apparel this past June, the company has faced a decent amount of heat from the media.
