Perfume Can’t Rid A&F; Chain of Stench
Abercrombie & Fitch, the incorrigible clothier that proudly markets thong underwear to adolescent girls, has suddenly yanked a Christmas catalog that touted group sex and made Victoria’s Secret models look like choir girls.
“It’s been rotated out of stores to make room for the new fragrance,” said Hampton Carney, A&F;’s New York flack.
Carney claimed the decision had nothing to do with my giving A&F; a good beating two Sundays ago, or with several boycott campaigns around the country. They just needed to clear space to “launch” the new perfume.
“You expect me to believe that?” I asked Carney.
They drop an R-rated Christmas catalog on the kickoff of the holiday shopping season, and I’m supposed to believe it’s because there’s only enough room in stores for either the catalog or the perfume?
“This is the holiday season,” Carney chirped, “and every inch of our store is valuable real estate.”
Maybe perfume isn’t a bad idea. Deodorizer would be even better, because Carney’s explanation stinks to high heaven.
(By the way, the new scent is called “Now.” I guess “Underage” was already taken.)
My guess is that the backlash over the A&F; Quarterly catalog, which was full of naked young models and recommended orgies and group masturbation, might have been felt at the cash register.
A&F;’s whole schtick is to walk a fine line, trying to create enough bad-boy publicity and controversy to drive profits, but not so much that Mom & Dad get wise and take away Junior’s credit card.
“Any retailer is vulnerable to public opinion, and I don’t think they’re an exception,” said Maryam Kubasek of the National Coalition for the Protection of Families & Children, which organized a coast-to-coast boycott of A&F.;
Give Abercrombie execs credit, though. They know who and what they are, so they’re going to keep using sex to sell clothes, even though the clientele includes young teens and preteens.
The spring catalog will have plenty of nudity, Carney assured me. And then there’s the current Toys for Tots promotion, which Carney described as “an adult version of sitting on Santa’s lap.”
In this case, “Santa” got rid of the paunch and now has great abs. He’s an in-store model who goes shirtless, and his jeans are so low, his underpants are on display.
Two of these junior Chippendales will be at A&F; stores on weekends through Christmas, along with a female elf who’d probably risk a good slapping from Mrs. Claus.
“She’s not topless,” Carney said. “She’ll have on, like, a little camisole top and jean mini-skirt.”
You might be asking yourself, like, what’s this got to do with Toys for Tots?
Customers will pay $1 to have their photo taken with the models -- what fireplace mantle can be complete without one of these tasteful Polaroids? -- and the money will buy toys for underprivileged tykes who have no idea what kind of money-grubbing predators are out there in the world.
“To be honest, I was really just appalled,” said Michelle Braun, a high school dean who walked into A&F; at the Grove in Los Angeles last weekend and was eyeballed by bare-chested models. “They’re just there staring at you, and it’s intimidating.”
Between that and the photos of nearly nude young models on the walls, Braun, who works at Discovery Charter Prep in Pacoima, was creeped out. Children are in and out of these stores, she thought. Where’s A&F;’s sense of social responsibility?
“We spend so much time at school working with 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds who already have so many warped views,” Braun said, “and we try teaching them they don’t want to be pregnant at 15.”
Sex has always been used to sell things, said Michael Kieschnick, who founded a children’s advocacy group called Dads and Daughters. But using sex to sell clothes to kids gives A&F; a rare distinction.
“Abercrombie & Fitch is really sick at its very core,” said Kieschnick, whose group has sent thousands of unanswered e-mails to Abercrombie officers, trying to appeal to someone’s -- anyone’s -- conscience.
“Kids have to make a whole variety of choices having to do with sexual behavior, and A&F; promotes explicitly life-threatening behavior,” Kieschnick said. “My concern is that they’re a public health menace.”
If we can believe Heather Brilliant, a stock analyst for Morningstar, I wouldn’t expect Abercrombie to wake up tomorrow and decide to be a good citizen.
Sales have lagged for a few years now, she said, because young shoppers have less money in their pockets and they’re thinking twice about buying $69 sweatshirts just because they’ve got the A&F; name on them. Edge and controversy are all the company has going for it, Brilliant said.
So it’s out with the Group Sex catalog, and in with the junior Chippendales who can’t keep their boxers in their pants.
“It’s really cute,” said Carney, who I’m beginning to suspect is a trained parrot. With the Toys for Tots photo op, he told me, it’s as if the A&F; catalog is coming to life.
“It’s Mom and Grandma’s and the daughter’s opportunity to become part of the A&F; Quarterly,” Carney said.
The nuns were right. They said the devil wouldn’t have horns and a pitchfork.
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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.
