Friday April 23, 2010
Calvin College Students Protest Oversexed American Apparel Ads
By Kathleen Gilbert
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, April 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Students at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are urging a boycott of American Apparel products because of the company’s pornographic advertising material.
American Apparel, which operates over 200 retails stores and touts all of its products as made in the USA, often advertises see-through clothing on models in explicit poses.
“It’s extreme. It’s disgusting,” Calvin student Hannah Whyte told local ABC affiliate WZZM 13.
The students viewed the clothing company’s website after learning that the school ordered custom T-shirts from American Apparel to be distributed at orientation. “I was like, oh great, another chance to support a good company and then he said, but don’t visit their website. It’s almost pornographic,” said student Abbie Belford.
The two students, both members of the Calvin College chapter of Democracy Matters, started a Facebook page and have begun circulating a petition to end the school’s association with American Apparel until the company changes its advertising techniques.
“The body of a woman is a beautiful thing, but American Apparel is degrading women to the value of an object — a sex toy — with their provocative advertisements,” state the students on the Facebook page. “We don’t believe that Calvin should support a company which uses sex to sell their merchandise.”
According to local news, Calvin College has already responded to say that while it already received the new T-shirts, it will likely stop purchasing from American Apparel and choose another company next year.
American Apparel reportedly defended the explicit ads by stating that company officials “appreciate the sincerity of the views expressed by these students,” but “feel that these images are evocative because they feature real people instead of professional models done up with makeup artists or Photoshop.”
Dov Charney, the company’s founder and CEO, has been known to encourage a sex-saturated workplace as the ideal creative environment, and has been accused in several sexual harassment lawsuits launched by female employees.
The company also evoked outrage in 2008 after purchasing billboards in Toronto and Manhattan that featured a pornographic image.