Well, Dov Charney’s brush with, er, class didn’t last long as the American Apparel CEO’s brand has come under fire once again for an ad appearing in Vice magazine.
This time, the campaign in question features a nubile model who appears to be about 16 (but is actually 23) in a sequence of six photos that show her slowly losing her AA Flex Fleece zip hoodie to reveal more skin. The partial nudity at the end didn’t sit well with some readers who complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that the model seemed “young and vulnerable and [the ad] could be seen to sexualize a child.”
Of course, American Apparel offered their now-predictable defense, saying the ad was not meant to depict the of-age model as “a sex object or in a negative or derogatory light.” Instead, the Guardian reports that the company wanted to show the gal in a “relaxed home environment” and that the hoodie shown was “soft to the touch” and could be worn directly against the skin. How warm n’ fuzzy.
Still, one could argue that readers of Vice would be desensitized at this point to such material.
Update: American Apparel has announced today that it will no longer use the UK advert in question.
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