Response Post:
According to Ethical Issues in Marketing: Selective Marketing and Market Exclusion, the general trend is an increase in clothing size in USA. Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F), on the other hand, has been creating products that aim toward “thin people,” which exclude people who require larger sizes. Yes, it may limited the amount of profit that A&F could potentially make but the most important issue is the societal impact that such market exclusion can create.
The ethical issue in question is the body image that A&F tries to promote. They promote “thin” body type instead of promoting healthy body type. And when people associate with the word thin and clothing, people would tend to think of model body type, which at times could borderline anorexic. Consequently, consumers internalize the model-like thin body or the muscular body of male model, which could altered the healthy body image.
Ethical issues can be viewed as important or not is based on the people in that society. In North American society, body image has always been an important issue. However, the issues of healthy body image is often overlooked by the marketers such as the ones for A&F. The consumers would keep the vicious cycle going if they keep indirectly promote the unhealthy body image by keep supporting the brand.
I have conducted an interview with a long-time A&F customer, who has been a loyal customer of ten years. He is not concern with the fact that A&F produces their clothes in a third world country where the factory workers could be underpaid and overworked or the fact that they discriminate against people with a certain body type. According to my interviewee, he said, “It’s [A&F’s] marketing strategy…people can choose to buy their clothes from other brands if they want something that fits.”
The interviewee is an example of how the marketers such as the ones from A&F can get away with discriminating a certain type of body image through market exclusion. When consumers in the society do not care, the mindless consumption can sustain the vicious cycle of unethical marketing, hence the negative impact that it contributes to the society.
Photo from Business Insider.