Essay On American Apparel

The genre of the ‘texts’ being analysed are ‘American Apparel’ print advertisements. The actual audiences of these advertisements are teenagers and young adults. Their target/implied audience, however, are adults that are older than 18 years of age. They tend to steer away from people under the age of 18, as the clothes are quite expensive and people within the ages of 18-25 normally have ‘entry-level jobs.’ However, the models’ ages range from 18-35, there are a few anomalies where they used a 62-year-old model as well. Showing that they use untraditional methods and the young models that they use may be an indication as to their implied target audience. Both males and females are targeted; they have a women’s, men’s and children’s section,
as seen on their website. The advertising, which is heavily women based, could be to aid the purpose of the brand because the stereotype is that women do the shopping, either for their boyfriends, husbands or children. They also tend to steer away from people the age of 45+ (staybasic) because they don’t fit American Apparel’s idea of ‘trendy’. The purpose of their advertisements is to sell their brand’s clothes and maximise profits. They claim to be “sweatshop free” (American Apparel), which theoretically would attract young adults with interests in human rights and global issues. “American Apparel is a clothing manufacturer, distributor, and retailer based in Los Angeles, California, created by Dov Charney.” (Wikipedia – American Apparel) It claims to sell “fashionable basics.” (American Apparel) There are several controversies surrounding American Apparel due to their print advertisements and several other factors, which will be further explored throughout this essay.
Dov Charney has tried to put a unique spin to his brand by being sweatshop free and using the “un-airbrushed aesthetic” with their print campaigns. They seem to be very proud of their “raw” images, as airbrushing is seen as a controversial issue however they contradict it with pornographic, explicit content. Incorporating sex appeal, objectification and misogynistic/sexist elements into their advertising techniques, it can be seen as quite risky and often borderline pornographic, even being banned in a few countries. “Objectification is often used in a general way to describe disrespectful ideas about another person when those ideas involve emphasis on physical beauty (or lack thereof) or dismissal of the objectified person's full personality and attributes.” (Women’s history – feminism
glossary)

Sex and sexual elements are often seen as “taboo”, although ironically seen everywhere especially in modern society.
Brands (such as American Apparel) have used this to their advantage and often try to incorporate sexual elements their advertisement campaigns. Using the ‘sex sells’ technique, which connotes that sex, in fact, does sell due to the sexual shock value (Wikipedia & Ledesma). This technique is often used in advertising and the purpose of this is to attract attention. Going to extremes that are “shocking” is what seems to work for certain brands like American Apparel. Focusing more on selling the brand than their goods. The ‘subject’ in most of these campaigns in American Apparel is women, where they are often revealing parts of their bodies regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with the product that is being advertised. This alone is a huge problem that we are facing in society, where women’s bodies are being sexualised for advertisement purposes. Women bearing their bodies by choice are not issues but our society viewing it in a different, sexual, objectifying light is, and this will be discussed throughout the
essay.

This essay aims to critically analyse the way language and visuals are used in American Apparel’s print advertisements to portray an objectified view of women. The focus will be on how language and visuals play a huge role in determining how women are portrayed in a negative manner, focusing on photographic elements, mise en scene and text captions used. This topic is of huge significance to me, as a feminist and a customer of American Apparel, this affects mine and several others’ views on the brand. As the actual audience is younger than the brand claim to target to, from personal experience I have shopped at American Apparel, despite their advertisements. In my opinion, the advertisements itself don’t offend me and I don’t believe that nudity or body revealing is a problem however the context behind it and the way they portray women is an issue for me. American Apparel has created a negative impact on people, more specifically women, by their objectifying advertisements, this essay will further breakdown how certain adverting techniques are utilized to do so.