A teenage girl wearing only socks and panties squirms in varying degrees of ecstasy. In another, the camera close-up zeroes in a woman’s tight-fitting underwear – “Stuff this,” the ad says. ”Stocking stuffers and Hanukkah hits.” These are not pictures from a racy magazine but billboard advertisements from retail phenomenon American Apparel. American Apparel also places the advertisements in alternative magazines and Web sites, or on the back pages of weekly newspapers like SF Weekly, The Onion, and the alternative lifestyle magazine Vice. They have boosted sales at retail giant American Apparel, but the brazen advertisements have not come without uproar. They border on the pornographic, critics charge.
Charney has dismissed critics as misguided, adding that he embraces the idea of “real” advertising that challenges the notions of conventional ads. His ads picture people one might find walking down the street or at the local coffee shop, bad skin and all. Charney has often taken the photos himself, and some have pictured girlfriends.
Charney’s risqué ads approximate American Apparel’s extravagant workplace. American Apparel’s reputation as a maverick clothing chain has not come without hazards. Charney garnered unwanted publicity in 2005 when several lawsuits filed by former employees accused Charney and American Apparel of sexual harassment. The lawsuits claim Charney conducted job interviews in his underwear and gave a vibrator to at least one employee. Charney has steadfastly denied the charges, and as of February 2008 only one of the three suits had gone to trial.
In late 2007, another series of American Apparel ads caused a stir again, although the models were fully clothed. Charney placed a quarter page ad – pictured was a Latino American Apparel employee – in the New York Times on Dec 21. The ad underlined the plight of an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The ad says current U.S. immigration policy amounts to an “apartheid system” that should be revamped.
"Let me be clear who makes our clothes. It is a collaboration between American-born people and non-American-born people," he told the Times. "I don't think supporting immigration reflects negatively on my brand, and in fact, it makes it look like we're a responsible business."
Charney is not sure what impact the ad would have on his business. “I am not at all worried about my ability to sell T-shirts now or two years from now,” he told WWD magazine. “But one can’t just crawl into a shell. It’s important that business leaders and celebrities start talking about this issue. From an academic, human, and economic point of view, this is good information to put out there on behalf of our corporation.”
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