American Apparel

Check out this article about the American Apparel ad shown above.

"A woman who lives in this neighborhood, contacted wcbstv.com to tell us she's sent a petition to American Apparel with dozens of resident's signatures asking them to take the billboard down."

The woman mentioned above is named Jessi and you can check out her blog at http://annienyc.blogspot.com/. The two pictures used here were also taken by Jessi.

I highly recommend checking out her blog entries about American Apparel at http://annienyc.blogspot.com/search/label/american%20apparel. Start with the entry at the bottom of the page and scroll up to read more recent entries. Find out about this controversial billboard and how Jessi took it upon herself to contact CBS and inspire their news story. The blog entries detail Jessi's reaction to the billboard as well as the opinions of other local residents, like the man who owns the business right underneath the giant ad.

Jessi says, "this billboard is the epitome of dehumanization."

I also think this ad is completely sexist and dehumanizing. By not even showing the woman's face, they are further turning her into a sexual object. By repeatedly showing women in sexually objectified images, American Apparel is-- inadvertently or not-- sending a message to society about women. And the message they are sending is false and dangerous.



Ads, especially 50 ft. tall posters, send messages. So the more ads like this that we allow, the more we are sending these negative messages to people, in particular impressionable young boys and girls. The messages we teach our children influence what kind of people they grow up to be. Do we want to teach our children that women are sexual objects who should be used and disrespected? Of course not! That will benefit absolutely no one. Even if a company insists on using sex in their ads, whether or not it will help sales, it is completely possible to do that without taking it to the level of degrading women.



(the above ad is diagonally across the street from a playground.)

By portraying a woman as a sexual object, an ad is saying that her feelings and personality are not important. Many people have urgently expressed concern over a possible connection between images like this and real-life violence toward women.

I am once again going to quote wikipedia on the dangers of dehumanization:

"Dehumanization is a process by which members of a group of people assert the "inferiority" of another group through subtle or overt acts or statements. Dehumanization may be directed by an organization (such as a state) or may be the composite of individual sentiments and actions.... Anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson famously wrote that dehumanization might well be considered "the fifth horsemen of the apocalypse" because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they become dispensable - and any atrocity can be justified."

From the CBS article:

"The consumer has the power," Passikoff said. "Enough letters written to a corporation regarding any kind of a campaign and you'll see a campaign dropped entirely."

So, boycott American Apparel! Write them a letter if you don't like their ads.

Contact content advisor Alexandra Spunt at alexandra@americanapparel.net,
or write to adrian@americanapparel.net.

Be like Jessi and do something. If everyone who hates these ads were to do something about it, I think we would see a big change; most women I talk to do not like to see women portrayed like this, and many men feel the same way. So don't be passive, and don't be silent!