The ad I have chose to analyse is the controversial American Apparel campain. American Apparel was founded in 1989 by Charney in his college dorm room, from this he developed a franchise with over 250 stores in 2010. Since the beginning they used bold advertisements and challenged boundaries to get people aware of the brand and to buy into what they are selling. The company was originally whole sale selling plain organic white t-shirts marketed as Full American type of clothing alongside panties and underwear with the models predominantly barely dressed. The suggestive advertisements occurred more and became more socially shared and was grabbing attention. In 2005 the first fully topless advertisement was published.
The ad being analysed here is a woman laying on her back with the legs open spread appearing to not wearing any briefs and looking directly into the camera. The photograph is taken from a higher up angle, positioned over the model in a dominated way. The only thing she is wearing are nylon socks being the main thing in focus in the photograph. The bold white stripe and black logo covering her gentitalia. It also shows the bottom of the buttock directly underneath the logo and in direct eyeline. The hands are clasping the product (socks) pulling them into herself and the hands strategically placed covering her breasts. The model, no older than 25, pulling a forlorn and emotionless expression imitates a forceful or overpowered feel in the image. Like the viewer is watching over her. The background of the image is empty and almost stage like, a set of a film or just an empty space, not owned or lived in. The bed the model is laying on is tidy with the sheets pulled neatly, not looking like it has been used. The whole image gives an emotion of overpowerment and the woman being ‘open’ to the play of what she may not want to occur. The atmosphere of the photo is gloomy and dull but possibly enjoyable for the male audience, a situation that is more rewarding for them. Whereas, the company at this time was only selling woman clothing and more so than ever, underwear, so this marketing strategy can be argued unsuitable for its main target market which are young adults 16-25. Ethically, the problems of sexism in fashion and especially in everyday situations are targeted as selling strategies, creating a desire to be attractive and sexy. American apparel take this idea of make a woman sexy and develops it to a non powerful, submissive servant whereas woman should be empowered and body confident in appropriate ways for the age of the customer. The particular models they use in their adverts have a young, slim and emotionless nature in the photographs with a young school child feel with the long socks. This can be a massive factor into normalising pedophillia, a massive problem that has recently become more socially shared. ‘Though not attacking the model themselves, the sexually attractive model in the advertisement was the symbol of the latent, or blatant, sexism of capitalism. The perception models as ‘dumb’ or mute objects has been a common theme in scholarly work on visual culture.’ (Entwistle, J. and Wissinger, E. eds., 2013.) This explains in todays world that sexism is more obvious and problematic, a ethical issue that is being talked about and realised by professors and writers of fashion, but needs to be changed as selling strategies to stop linked problems such as sexual abuse and pedophillia. By taking these problems at the roots, the stems should die, therefore being irrelevent in todays world.
Bibliography
https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-profile/AEO
http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/28779/1/a-brief-history-of-american-apparel
Book:
Entwistle, J. and Wissinger, E. eds., 2013. Fashioning models: image, text and industry. A&C Black.