BANNED ADVERTISEMENT : OVER-SEXUALITY American Apparel Inc was a North American clothing manufacturer, designer, distributor, marketer and retailer based in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Dov Charney in 1989. They have been known to made a name for itself over the years through controversy. American Apparel (AA) has launched a lot of racy, over-sexual, pornographic, smutty, exploitative of women and inappropriately sexualised young women. Their advertising campaign were banned in most country as it is still be considered unsavory - American Apparel treating women as sex objects, no matter their ages. Sexual contents are shunned upon especially in Muslim-dominated countries. AA campaign such as below looked innocent however, the full scale pictures weren’t so innocent as it bordered the line of child-sexualisation. The marketing campaign below raised complaints among the viewers, challenging that the image was “irresponsible and offensive” because it portrayed an image of a model who looked under 16-years-old. Many of the images used by American Apparel to sell women’s clothing portray models in extremely provocative poses, in various stages of undress.There are speculation that AA also keeps producing risque creative deliberately so its advertising gets banned, for the extra free publicity ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) adjudications bring with them. “Safe to say she loves socks” Based on the print advertisement, we could clearly see that on its surface there is no correlation and connection between the product and the mini featured pictures that appeared on the side frame which only represents the same woman (model) with explicit image of sexual elements. Despite this, the cultural practice of most individual from 4 seasons country would practice using socks during their night sleep. Due to the weather and cold climate which makes a socks as one of the essential items for a night sleep after pyjamas. The double entendre behind the advertisement is the core of the ‘Pull Factor’ that invites imagination while browsing through the advertisement towards night sleep activities which is sexual intercourse. Having to say that this socks is comfortable during the night even through sexual intercourse. The abundance of racy advertisements like above are not favorable towards moralized future generation. What message are we trying to give to our children by allowing this type of media advertising into their life? “Swimming” Despite the normal looking model, she is known to be working in a porn film industry. Putting porn star on the centre of your advertisement not only endorse the immoral industries, but has the effect or normalising the frowned upon adultery into the society.
