American Apparel - Research Paper Example

American Apparel Introduction American Apparel is a United s clothing manufacturer, retailer, and distributor based in Los Angeles. The company has vertically integrated organizational structure and undertakes its clothing manufacturing, retail processes, and wholesale activities, while also undertaking its own marketing, advertising, and design (AAFA 1). American Apparel is widely recognized for its solid-color and basic knitwear, including underwear and T-shirts, although it has undergone expansion in the recent past to also include other clothing items like beddings, nail polish, denims, pants, dresses, vintage wear, tank tops, leotards, and leggings. In addition, the company also deals in accessories for dogs, as well as children, women, and men in numerous colors and print (AAFA 1). One of the most interesting aspects of American Apparel is that it creates, designs, and prints its advertising campaigns. It is, especially, world renowned for its controversial and provocative advertisements that have been largely inspired by Dov Charney, the organization’s chief executive. In fact, they have long been considered industry leaders with regards to their print advertisements. Although their sex-laden ad campaigns have been criticized across the board, some commentators have praised them for their realism and stark honesty. Background The company’s chief executive contends that American Apparel’s goal has always been to create a heritage brand for the American public, especially the American pursuit for happiness, property, and liberty. They have been lauded for their ad’s realism since most of their ad subjects are portrayed with their asymmetrical features, imperfections, and blemishes that are attached and highlighted with personal and brief descriptions about them (Welters & Lillethun 65). American Apparel, in addition, rather than outsource their model recruitment, recruits its own ad models from the organization’s stores, on the street, or from photos sent directly to the company’s headquarters via the website. At some point in the past, American Apparel sought to pursue a strategy that dwelt on how the company treated its workers in order to sell the company brand and merchandise, promoting its products as being free of sweatshop activities. The company has also engaged in politically-charged advertisements, such as their anti-immigration laws campaign that referred to current laws as an American variation of apartheid alongside their company logo in 2008 (Welters & Lillethun 66). It has always been their goal to sell the American dream to the rest of the world, particularly with regards to aspiration. On top of their participation in the anti-immigration law protest movement, American Apparel has also been involved in an advocacy/advertising campaign that they referred to as Legalize LA (Welters & Lillethun 68). This advocacy/advertising campaign was run in several national print media sources, including the NY Times, as well as posters, bus ads, t-shirts, and billboards. Their website also maintains portion of its space for the Legalize LA campaign with numerous features and articles about American immigration legislation, policies, and reform. In addition, after the passage of California’s Prop 8 legislation that clearly defined marriage as being between a female and male in late 2008, the company rolled out its Legalize Lesbians and Gay campaign. This was in addition to its campaign “Repeal Prop 8” that was printed in a similar manner to the style on the Legalize LA shirts sold by American Apparel. This was followed by a partnership in 2012 with the GLAAD movement, which saw American Apparel release a new clothing line in celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month (Welters & Lillethun 68). This line also the first inclusion of the industry’s first transgender fashion model and, in 2013, the company’s CEO indicated that they would introduce a “Trans-sexy” clothing line. This resulted in its latest award as a Pro-Gay company. American Apparel has, in the past, made use of various adult film actors with the most notable one being Sasha Grey (Welters & Lillethun 71). This has contributed to some of their ads being banned by media authorities in several countries for their featured sexually-themed and nude ads. It was, in fact, for this reason that American Apparel was forced to comply with UK regulations as one of their ads featuring Sasha Grey (pictured to the above) was deemed to be potentially offensive to a broad population of UK audiences (Welters & Lillethun 71). However, the company has also been the recipient of various advertisement industry awards, including the Marketer of the year in 2005. This particular award was given to American Apparel by the Fashion Awards in Paris. Following a survey of young people aged between twenty one and twenty seven, Women’s Wear Daily ranked the company above Levi’s and H&M as the eighth most trusted global fashion brand (Hyllegard et al 229). American Apparel ads have also spawned several fake ad campaigns that have been carried out as stunts and convinced audiences across the world of their authenticity. The company normally reveals the fakes through Vice Magazine, although they also rank the best fakes and give the designers a chance to make real ads for them. American Apparel has also been the recipient of various other awards, including being cited as the second most respected trendsetting brand by the American Intelligence Group in 2008. In addition, during the same year, the company was cited as the best label of the year in 2009 by the UK newspaper The Guardian (Hyllegard et al 229). However, American Apparel, due to its provocative nature, has never been free of controversy. The company, Hyllegard et al (p.231) contend, may have taken it too far in 2007 when they put up billboards in LA and New York showing Woody Allen as his character from the Annie Hall film dressed up as a Jewish Rabbi and accompanied by text in Yiddish. After these billboards had been up for one week, some audiences contended that they were allegorical and satirical, especially in their allusion to similar controversy that the Woody Allen character experienced and the exact scene in the movie. However, Woody Allen was not impressed and objected strongly to the impression created by the ad, which led to a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the company. According to court reports, Woody Allen contended that it was in his considered opinion that American Apparel’s ad was infantile and sleazy (Hyllegard et al 231). While American Apparel’s representatives claimed that these billboard advertisements were only meant to be a social parody, debate raged about the possibility that the company would use Woody Allen’s personal life unfairly (Hyllegard et al 232), particularly his sexual escapades with Soon Previn, as its defense during the defamation trial. However, this debate was soon put to rest after American Apparel claimed that they would argue they protected under the US Constitution’s First Amendment and its provision for freedom of speech. American Apparel settled the lawsuit out of court with a $5 million payout to Woody Allen, although this was only half of what he was looking for. American Apparel Ad Analysis So, what does a practically-naked young woman in knee-length, burgundy striped leggings have to do with clothing stores? Although the answer may be that they have nothing to do with clothing stores and, in fact, would be going there to buy more clothes, closer observation and analysis shows that the answer is surprisingly simple. These situations are commonplace in advertisements run by various corporations, especially in the fashion industry (Berger 46). Organizations like American Apparel and Victoria’s Secret have shown themselves to be adept at taking subjects and images that attract the attention of particular demographics in the population as a representation of what they are selling. Although this, at first glance, may seem ridiculous, a tactic that has worked over the past century and remains to do so today in the sale of products. American Apparel is probably the most renowned organization when it comes to using these tactics in their advertising campaigns, especially the use of provocative young females posing for pictures in their clothing, or, at least, as little of their clothing as necessary. American Apparel advocates for sex as a way to appeal to their core target group, especially in selling clothing to young people in society. This, according to Yan et al (p.213), is meant to create a sense of sexual identity in the young men and women in society. This necessitates an exploration and analysis of various ad techniques used by American Apparel in attempting to support the above stated hypothesis. As stated, in the background section, American Apparel is infamous for its advertisements, especially the sexually provocative tendencies so evident in their campaigns. The company, in fact, has been involved in several sexual harassment cases because of how they treat their ad campaign models. This brings up the question of American Apparel’s ethical responsibilities as they push to attract young consumers (Klein 1). The company’s ads are mostly found in such urban fashion magazines as “Vice” and “Vanity Fair”, as well as respected fashion blogs and their website. Analyzing this in context, these are avenues in which, their targeted young audiences are most likely to visit or read. Their “Made in Downtown LA” slogan is also a good representation of the character they are attempting to portray, which is that they are American. This seeks to appeal directly to American consumers since people, especially Americans, are more willing to buy products made in their own country by fellow Americans (Stein 174). This way, they feel that they can trust the products more than foreign made products. Although this slogan is appealing to American consumers, it appears in small styled and white text at the advertisement’s bottom right corner. This minimalism of their text seeks to characterize their company by, probably, suggesting that this is not the part of the company that consumers should focus majority of their attention on (Yan et al 216). It is the images, which American Apparel wants the audience to focus on, and looking at the advertisement, the image is the first aspect that grabs the audience’s attention. The main image is that of a young woman, who is, for all purposes, nude, and with nothing on, but knee-length striped leggings and underwear. Her bare chest is covered with long American-style blonde hair, and she is seated on a couch alone clutching her shins and facing the audience. Staring right at the audience through the camera with her brown and fierce eyes, the ad ensures that she is the main attraction by setting her in the middle of the ad and ensuring that they use minimal text that surrounds her at the margins of the print advertisement (Yan et al 215). In addition, there are also smaller pictures of other models to her left with sexual-expressions on their faces, while the color scheme is decidedly minimalistic. This makes the burgundy; knee-length socks stand out and become the main attraction, along with the model. This advertisement has a font, which is all white and of Helvetica style, which is pushed to the side in the ad to act as the model’s complement and the socks they are promoting. In fact, the most visible text in the advertisement is the one that contends, “Safe to Say she loves her Socks”, which is not explained any further in the advert. The audience are given the opportunity of deriving their own conclusions (Lachance et al 51), especially connecting the quote to the sexual facial expressions of the models in the ad that are most likely wearing the same socks. The three images could indicate that the young woman enjoys her socks so much that she does not take them off during sex. Does this mean that young women buying the socks will fall in love with them just as the models in the ad have? I do not think so, specifically because the overall objective of American Apparel running this ad is to sell their socks, which means that there is an underlying and deeper meaning with regards to why they elected to promote women socks like this (Lachance et al 51). Young female and male adults are the targets of this ad, just as they are the targets of all other American Apparel adverts. This target group values their self-expressive freedom, as well as their ability to be unique individuals without feeling that they are alienated from their peers (Gobé 69). By using sex as an appeal to this group, this advertisement appeals to the target audience through use of a young model who is revealing her body expressively to her audience. It is probable for the target group to relate to her since the expressive attitude is an aspect that a lot of young people want to possess. While male consumers would want to have as expressive a girlfriend as her, female consumers will want to be equally expressive. While young adults would want to be as individualistic as they can, they also idolize females (Riggs 102), such as the one in this advertisement. This advert, as well as other advertisements that rely on sex appeal, seek to perpetuate stereotypes about sex by portraying women in a manner that alludes to their sexuality (Riggs 103). This portrayal of women makes men view them as sexual objects that are submissive and respond when favors are required of them. In addition, women who see these kinds of sexualized images of other women tend to make a comparison and internally judge how their own characters and appearances compare to the women in the advertisements. They become conflicted about whether to accept the values espoused in these adverts and the images used or to defy these images (Riggs 103). Moreover, this sexualized nature of women’s bodies is considered as an appeal to some of the female demographic, which makes them abandon their personal and individual nature in order to become more acceptable to a society that is increasingly glamorized by sex. This glamorization of sex does not only remain confined to print media in the United States. Images from adverts by American Apparel are also available through new media technologies like the internet and other platforms like social media (Riggs 103). This means that people can view them across the world. Therefore, sexual representations of female bodies that are seen in the United States are also visible to other people across the world. This could mean that people around the world have generalized assumptions and stereotypical views about American society in its entirety, especially regarding American women. American Apparel’s images, particularly those shown in this paper, perpetuate stereotypical views about American females to a global audience, while Americans, on their part, also internalize the image regarding how they consider American women in Generation Y (Riggs 104). This could be considered as an additional factor to the confusion about how Americans should consider and view themselves individually. American Apparel’s advertisements have, for a while, been considered by some commentators as creating in young adults a false sense of individual and collective identity. According to Riggs (p.112), the models used in the company’s advertisements become idols for young people who have been defined, as the main target group for the ads. These models, including the one in the above-discussed advertisement, appear to be confident and comfortable about herself, as well as her appearance. This is an attribute that majority of young women want to possess, while it is also the attribute that American Apparel’s ads want to them to believe they need to have. The female model immediately gains credibility as the quintessential young woman in the eyes of the American consumer (Riggs 112). Since she is a model, the consumer considers her to have, as with all other models, sex appeal and a great fashion sense. Therefore, the female consumer viewing the ad believes that purchasing these socks will make her just as sexy and fashionable as the model wearing them. This, in turn, results in the materialization of a sense of identity for young impressionable women, which makes them alter their own attributes and characteristics to fit those of the desirable model. In addition, although the male consumer has no wish to become like the model in the advert, they would also want to purchase knee high socks for their girlfriends if it makes them as expressive as the featured model. While this does not specifically and significantly alter the characteristics of the male consumer like with female consumers, it still creates an identity for them (Riggs 113), such as their interest in specific women. Conclusion Major companies, including American Apparel, have come to rely on the sex concept in selling their products to the American public, especially the youth. By incorporating provocative sexual images, their ads, are able to attract young women and men. This target group views the ads and gets a sense that a specific product will improve their acceptance among peers, while also making them more self-confident. In turn, this has a significant effect on their identity formation, which is what American Apparel sets out to achieve. Works Cited AAFA. American Apparel and Footwear Association. 2013. Web. 14 April 2014 . Berger, Arthur A. Manufacturing Desire: Media, Popular Culture, and Everyday Life. New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers, 1996. Print. Gobé, Marc. Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People. New York: Allworth Press, 2001. Print. Hyllegard, Karen. Ogle, Jennifer. Rudd, Nancy. Litrell, Mary. & Bickle, Marianne. "Course Development in Socially Responsible Advertising and Promotion: an Interdisciplinary and Stakeholder Approach." Marketing Education Review. 22.3 (2012): 225-240. Print. Klein, Naomi. Naomi Klein on how corporate branding has taken over America. 16 January 2010. Web. 14 April 2014 . Lachance, Marie. Beaudoin, Pierre. & Robitaille, Jean. "Adolescents’ Brand Sensitivity in Apparel: Influence of Three Socialization Agents." International Journal of Consumer Studies. 27.1 (2003): 47-57. Print. Riggs, Thomas. Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2007. Internet resource. Stein, Sarah. R. "The “1984” Macintosh Ad: Cinematic Icons and Constitutive Rhetoric in the Launch of a New Machine." Quarterly Journal of Speech. 88.2 (2002): 169-192. Print. Welters, Linda. & Lillethun, Abby. The Fashion Reader. Oxford: Berg, 2011. Print. Yan, Ruoh-Nan. Hyllegard, Karen. & Ogle, Jennifer. "The Impact of Message Appeal and Message Source on Gen Y Consumers Attitudes and Purchase Intentions toward American Apparel." Journal of Marketing Communications. 16.4 (2010): 203-224. Print. Read More