imaginepageant
Slytherin Alumni
Classic you, insulting people because you have this complex that makes you an insufferable bitch.
Abercrombie Wants Only the Cool Kids
- Thread starter Doctor Langstrom
- Start date
Doctor Langstrom
I want to be FEARED!
Stephen Daidalus
Well-Known Member
Brought to you by the same people who marketed thongs and padded bikini tops to girls under 10. Is anyone really surprised?
nordicowboy
Must be my Nord blood......
Where's the racial element in all this? Nothing in the articles states or even implies anything of the sort.
Doctor Langstrom
I want to be FEARED!
If you've seen any of their adverts and marketing it's always white people. And oddly enough, it's always 95% of white people shopping there.
I haven't seen their ads and I don't give the store much thought, as I am a bit out of the target age demographic. I was just wondering if there was something else to it. A quick Google search yielded a class action suit from 10 years ago, settled for $50 million in 2005. Whether there was merit to it or Abercrombie just settled to maximize damage control obviously wouldn't be clear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalez_v._Abercrombie_&_Fitch_Stores
imaginepageant
Slytherin Alumni
I actually don't. I'm at least four inches too short, and perhaps too wide in the hips and thighs, to fit the mold of a runway model. On the other hand, I'm too long-limbed and small-chested to fit the mold for clothes sold in regular stores. I'd say about a quarter of clothes I try on fit well enough to consider buying, and maybe half of that actually flatter my body shape. Does this make me feel oppressed? No. Because the simple truth is that mainstream clothing is made to a very particular template and most people, whether they're thin or curvy, tall or short, boyish or well-endowed, just don't fit it.
Also, I don't necessarily think this was bad marketing by A&F. If their target audience is thin, rich, white people who think they're cooler and hotter than everyone else, what better way to appeal to them by coming right out and telling them that they're cooler and hotter than everyone else? Yeah, that attitude is offensive and will anger a lot of people, but if it brings in the type of people they want to bring in, then it's a good marketing strategy.
Stephen Daidalus
Well-Known Member
If equating your brand with privileged douchebag turns out to be a viable marketing strategy, I have little hope for the world. I hope it fails. But other than that, I really couldn't care. A & F say they sell Authentic American clothing. Since it's made in the Philippines, they can't be talking about where's it's manufactured. So if not made by Americans, it must be made specifically for Americans. That's not me. I shall now weep inconsolably.
This was kind of the point I was trying to make with my first sentence in post 28. I'm a 36 year-old white male. There are stores out there that cater to me, and stores that don't. To start with, there are stores that cater to women only, just as there are those that cater to men only. Beyond that, there are stores that cater to specific age groups. The 20-year-old Two Bears went to The Gap if he wanted to drop some cash on designer clothes. The 36-year-old Two Bears now has to go to Brooks Brothers if he wants to do that. The Gap isn't interested in me anymore; I'm outside their target demographic.
And that's the whole point. Business isn't about making everybody happy. It is about making money. Abercrombie is looking to corner the market on a specific demographic. Sure that isn't going to make everybody happy, and may even make a lot of people angry. However, that just the business model they're going for. You might as well get angry at that Men's Warehouse doesn't cater to plus size women.
Docta Corvina
Well-Known Member
All I'm saying is that I think it would have saved them a considerable amount of negative press if they'd just said, very simply, when pressed about sizing, "our business model runs up to a certain size and that's what we carry". And been done with it. It's the injection of blatant opinion on who and what is considered attractive that is offensive. I don't see other specialty stores doing the same thing, at least not so overtly.
And yeah, I don't have to shop there. And I won't. But as I said earlier, my objection has never been about them having a core customer base as their focus. It's about how needlessly petty they are about it.
But hey, if 'Arrogant Asshole' really is how they want to present themselves and sell themselves, let them knock themselves out - maybe even out of business for good. They're already struggling anyway.
And yeah, I don't have to shop there. And I won't. But as I said earlier, my objection has never been about them having a core customer base as their focus. It's about how needlessly petty they are about it.
But hey, if 'Arrogant Asshole' really is how they want to present themselves and sell themselves, let them knock themselves out - maybe even out of business for good. They're already struggling anyway.
Stephen Daidalus
Well-Known Member
It's not that they market exclusively to a particular demographic. That is very much not the point. The point is that they are saying that the demographic they market to are the only 'cool' people. You cannot be poor or fat and be 'cool', or even 'all-american'. They are appropriating the terms for themselves and defining them in a very narrow way.
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."
That's offensive. But is it a big deal? It if were a very big corporation with a lot of cultural influence such as Coca-Cola or Disney, it would be very much so. As it is, it's a small firm on the brink of bankruptcy that's been bought and sold numerous time over the years. So I don't think it's worth caring about.
Yeah, and it is totally valid for you to feel that way. On your end, you get the vote. In business your ballot is your Dollar/Euro/Ruble/conch shell/whatever the local currency is.
Of course they're saying it's cool. That what they want to present as the image. You are beautiful if you are wearing our clothing, so buy our clothing. It's marketing 101. And Coca-Cola and Disney do it too. How many fat Disney Princesses can you name? Do you ever see ugly people on a Coke commercial?
Stephen Daidalus
Well-Known Member
Yes. Almost all companies both adhere to and help shape the cultural landscape in very negative ways.
But they generally don't do it so shamelessly.
Edit: And there's a difference between 'wear our clothes and be cool' and 'you cannot wear our clothes because you are not cool'.
The first at least pretends to empower the consumer (and is very effective as a marketing strat). The second is just plain insulting.
I completely disagree. The shameless promotion of business is all around you.
Docta Corvina
Well-Known Member
Absolutely this.
Hell, even Victoria's Secret's sizing runs higher, it sounds like, than that of A&F. Most consumers will decidedly not look just like the Angels in the swimsuits, but they're more than welcomed to buy them. And VS is often considered a comparatively 'glamorous' label that gains quite a bit from glitzy advertising. It seems to me that A&F could do well to take hints from the business model of a continuously successful clothing company.
Stephen Daidalus
Well-Known Member
There's a difference between a company who uses only white models in their catalogs and one that says, 'We don't use black models because black people are ugly/uncool/not American/etc'.
There's shameless. And then there's outrageously shameless.
So what precisely is the difference between that and Cinderella's message that fat/ugly/uncool/etc individuals are evil and are not to be trusted?
