Isn't it ironic that in order for Abercrombie and Fitch to sell clothes, their models have to pose naked?
For $7, the new A&F Quarterly Christmas Field Guide (marketing jargon for "catalog"), features 208 pages of "Moose, Ice Hockey, Chivalry, Group Sex and More," according to the cover.
Group sex? I thought this was a catalog that was meant to sell clothes.
Looking at part of the catalog, there are indeed clothes in it. For example, I saw a pair of pants that a male was modeling. Granted, they were around his ankles, his arm was around a girl who wasn't wearing a top, and his bum was exposed - but he was wearing pants.
New York television station WPIX-TV took to the streets to show people the new catalog, which elicited a variety of hilarious responses.
One young man asked, "What are they trying to sell with this? I don't see any clothing on them."
"They show more skin than they actually do in a Victoria's Secret catalog," said a woman who also took a quick peek at the catalog. She also went as far as to suggest that A&F put a warning label on the catalog to warn parents of the content.
A&F beat her to the punch. No naked catalog that sells clothes is complete without a warning label!
For those rare few who happen to get sick and tired of looking at skin, you can brush up on your reading skills by checking out the music reviews and A&F's interview with Paris and Nicky Hilton. Mind-blowing, intellectual reading, I'm sure.
Why is A&F so darn popular amongst the college scene?
I decided to take a look at their Web site, abercrombie.com. They had a very attractive financial summary, complete with a black-and-white photo of a beefcake guy on the cover, reminiscent of Madonna's "Cherish" video. Net sales for A&F in 1998 were a little more than $800,000. In 2002, net sales reached just less than $1,600,700. The rest of the Web site was full of more naked people.
Psychotherapist Robi Ludwig told WPIX, "They're not selling sex, they're selling the idea that if you buy these clothes, you're gonna be beautiful, you're gonna be popular, you're gonna have a romantic evening with all of your friends, and you're gonna be really cool.
"Advertising and sex ... are so merged together, you rarely find one without the other," Ludwig added.
According to WPIX, A&F's official statement said they're targeting college students to purchase their catalog. I believe they are also targeting pedophiles through these pictures of half-naked young men and women.
I'm old enough to have lived through the whole of the 1980s, so I guess I've already been exposed (no pun intended) to this type of marketing ploy. Anybody out there remember Brooke Shields in her Calvin Klein jeans or Michael Jackson dancing in the streets with Alfonso Ribiero after drinking a Pepsi?
Naked people just don't hook me into buying A&F's clothes. However, if it floats your boat, by all means give them your money and drive up their stock prices.
I guess your $7 is well-spent if you're legal but still too shy to walk into an adult shop and purchase real pornography.
Evonne S. Avalos is a journalism junior. Reach her at evonne.avalos@asu.edu.
