We've all seen a lot of offensive ads from American Apparel across the United States, and we've had enough. Enough of their exploiting and demeaning women. Enough of making female bodies into objects to be purchased. And enough of cheapening female sexuality by using it to sell underwear. Sexism is not hip, cool, or ironic. It's harmful and it's insulting. We refuse to support a company that treats women as things.
Our demands:
1. American Apparel will end its sexist, exploitative ad campaigns and stops using women's oversexualized bodies as means to sell their products.
2. The CEO and president of American Apparel, Dov Charney, and its board will hire a marketing consultant to relaunch the brand so that it no longer objectifies women.
Listen. We need to talk. we know that you think American Apparel%u2019s ad campaigns are really cool, and that you and your company are really edgy and sexy and avant-garde and rebellious, but here%u2019s the thing: it%u2019s not, and you%u2019re not.
Your advertising is exploitative. It objectifies. It turns women into their legs, their breasts, their butts. This is not OK. Did you know that objectification of women in the media has been linked to violence against women? It makes sense: when you think of a woman as nothing but her body parts, it becomes much easier to hurt her or to assault her or to rape her. You claim that you love women, but if you did, you would stop treating them like this.
A lot of people like your clothes, Dov. They want to buy them. They like your company%u2019s other business practices, and they want to support them. But they can%u2019t, because your advertising is so demeaning and so harmful that to give you any money at all, even to buy a single pair of socks, is unthinkable.
You%u2019re alienating a lot of potential customers, and we%u2019re among them. There are others like us, and we%u2019re tired of being shouted down. We%u2019re tired of seeing women%u2019s bodies become objects for sexual pleasure, we%u2019re tired of being told that objectification is hip, and we%u2019re tired of being bombarded with your exploitative advertising.
We can not, and will not, shop at American Apparel with good conscience. We can not, and will not, purchase merchandise manufactured by American Apparel, even merchandise sold by other retailers%u2014including our favorite bands and artists. We can not, and will not, stand by as you turn female bodies into objects of public consumption.
