Since 2009, clothing company American Apparel has received much heat over what has said to be “unnecessarily sexual” photos for their marketing campaign. The issues began when complaints were sent to the “advertising watchdog” ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) for being inappropriate for children and featuring women who appeared to be under the age of sixteen years old in overtly sexual poses. Although American American has responded to these accusations  by saying the photos were “completely decent and were a fair representation of their product line”, several images have had to be removed over the last three years.

Is this fair? Shouldn’t American Apparel be able to express their product line however they wish? Unlike other companies such as Victoria’s Secret, American Apparel models are not airbrushed and have a very real and natural look to them. The main problem that American Apparel needs to suggest changing is the physical look of the girls. Although they are all of legal age when taking somewhat sexual photos, it is true that they look younger than their actual age. And since a person of any age is able to view their website, teen girls may be getting the wrong impression. Despite racy ads being somewhat of a norm in places such as Europe, they are appeared as offensive in North American and American Apparel needs to step it down a notch.

I believe that the company would get into much less hot water if they began choosing older looking models. Now the real question is would this affect American Apparel target audience? I guess we will all have to stay tuned to see their marketing campaign for 2013!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2243318/Gratuitous-American-Apparel-adverts-BANNED-ASA.html