Monday, September 22, 2008

"I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch"




When I hear the name Abercrombie and Fitch I think of the strong, nice smelling cologne sprayed on all of their clothes, the beautiful models walking in and around the store, and the fact that all my Christmas and birthday money or gift certificates are going to go towards the purchase of some clothes from there. I mean, why wouldn’t they, listen to the music they play in their stores! It’s so summery and fun and relaxing and just makes me want to shop! But that’s when you can say that the company has fooled me.
As you can see in the advertisement above the main focuses of the advertisement are not even the clothes that Abercrombie and Fitch sells. Rather, it’s on the muscular form of that gentleman’s abdomens. The background of the advertisement is blurred, gloomy, and stormy, danger’s coming! I would like to think that the reason for the lack of face in this advertisement is because the gentleman was camera shy, but I know that’s not the case. Why would a face matter in this advertisement? When a guy is wearing an open shirt, the focus is going to be on that bare skin, not the face! Perhaps his face wasn’t as capturing as his body and because clothes only sell when you have beautiful bodied men on the cover of a magazine, why bother wasting the extra space with a so-so face?
And doesn’t this advertisement just make you want to run into A&F and try on every article of clothing that makes you look that good? For sure! But have you looked at the price tags? If I didn’t get all that birthday money and gift certificates I would be in debt if I fell for every single advertisement that I saw of a man in low-rise blue jeans, bare stomach and chest, and a rather nice looking plaid shirt.
Well not only does this advertisement fool the consumer, but it also makes the male gender look like a piece of meat! In other A&F advertisements where girls are present, they too are perceived as objects. Our society has become so secular and narcissistic that we only care about the self, never mind how the half naked man on that advertisement feels!
It is obvious that the revenue in Abercrombie and Fitch stores across North America is extremely high, because in today’s society everyone has to feel rich and what better way to feel rich than to feel like a summer girl or summer boy who can afford t-shirts imported from overseas with a name brand on it! Well, I’m telling you now, your money’s not paying for the t-shirt.



The following is a music video where the band, LFO, makes reference to Abercrombie and Fitch in a song called "Summergirls." ENJOY!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah! I love this song! We used it in our fashion show that we put on last year for our "beach scene."

Anyways, on topic... umm... GREAT POST! lol :)