Posted on 12/05/2003 11:52:41 AM PST by nickcarraway
In an unprecedented move this year, Abercrombie & Fitch removed its catalog from their 650 stores. As I saw early reports this last week, there was something in my head that hoped it was for the right reasons. Certainly it is important that the offensive "Christmas Field Guide" – which promotes group sex to junior-high, high-school and college-aged kids is actually unavailable. But the response by Abercrombie & Fitch officials is telling – and the stakes are being raised.
I first heard about the catalog's removal from stores when I organized yet another covert attempt to purchase a catalog from an Abercrombie & Fitch store a day before Thanksgiving.
One store employee said: "You know we had a whole bunch of them right here on the checkout counter – let me ask the manager to see where they got put ... we had so many of them and now they're not here."
As I waited for the manager to return, I noticed on a table separate from the checkout counter a tabletop full of the new "NOW" perfume. "I didn't even know they did perfume," I thought to myself.
"We don't have them anymore sir," came the reply. "And in terms of why, the corporate office didn't say – only that they were to be removed immediately. Which is odd because we had so many of them."
Since no reason had been given – and because I did not know yet if it was nationwide – I decided to watch carefully for news of the catalog's removal. By the day after the holiday, knowing the masses would be in the stores, the catalogs were suddenly unavailable nationwide. In my opinion, this was due to the fact that thousands of people in New York, Illinois, California and the rest of the nation were becoming aware of the "Group Sex" magazine.
If people knew about it, went into the stores to try to find it and complain to management that they would boycott their stores unless something was done about it, it would make life easier on the clothier if they pulled it altogether. Which they did.
By the early part of this last week, news dribbles of what had happened began to get out. Most of the headlines read similarly: "Clothier pulls racy 'Group Sex' Christmas magazine due to outrage."
The only problem is, by the middle of this last week, the company is finally speaking out and thrusting its proverbial middle finger to the protestors – even though the efforts of my web-log and radio show on the East Coast have produced upward of 23,000 families signing the online petition or placing phone calls and officially boycotting the retailer; and even though – as Anne Morse reported in her column for National Review – employees at the Abercrombie & Fitch headquarters in Ohio confirmed they were getting 300 calls per hour threatening to boycott. Company officials insisted on saying the "outrage" left no impression on the company whatsoever.
In fact, Hampton Carney – Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman – said the reason the catalogs had been pulled was to "create room for the new line of 'NOW' perfumes." (The same perfume that was already displayed in the store when I had visited Abercrombie & Fitch the day before Thanksgiving.) Carney claimed that space near the checkout counter was limited in the stores and so they needed the maximum amount of room for their little half ounce bottle of perfume. The store I had been in did not have the perfume on the checkout counter at all, but instead had given it its own table space on the store floor.
But Carney took it one step further ...
"Our spring quarterly will be back in stores mid-January and everyone will see that there's no change in our editorial policy," Carney said. Carney went on to explain that what he meant was that all of the sexualization of young people, all of the mentality that says your kids need group sex, and all of the nude kids acting out in sexual ways in the magazine be it hetero-, homo-, or multi-sexual would still be on the table.
It is for this reason that the boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch must not be paused, but rather be stepped up. For if the clothier insists on rejecting the concerns of parents, then parents across America have the right to reject Abercrombie & Fitch.
On my web-log, there is an easy link to the "STOP Abercrombie & Fitch" petition drive near the top of the page on the left-hand sidebar. If picking up the phone is more your style, call 888-877-7723.
As I mentioned in this column several weeks ago, Abercrombie & Fitch has placed a "grand wager" – a wager that you will not care enough about your children to speak up. By dumping any of their stock that you may own (symbol: ANF), by avoiding their stores and purchasing your Christmas presents elsewhere for the holidays this year, and by politely letting them know why you are doing so, you will prove them wrong.
And since they seem to be digging in for the long-haul, "let us not grow weary in well doing!"
Secondly, A&F's mission is to sell merchandise. So, did this ploy relate to commercial success?
Good question. If 12 year old girls don't have a lot of spending power, how does that relate to commercial success.
If A&F puts out t-shirts that say ``Property of Al Quaeda,'' ``Osama Rocks,'' or ``Free Speech Sucks,'' doesn't mean I have to support them, does it?
Really? Gosh, in my times walking past A&F (I don't shop there, not my style) I do not ever recall seeing a 7 yr old whip out a checkbook, Visa or AmEx card and buying those thongs. It's far more likely that some idiot parents are doing this, but not 7 yr olds. A&F is (sickly) fulfilling a marketing niche; financed by parents.
Apparently it isn't helping commercial success:
Following the company's ugly October same-store sales results (extending its two-year streak of negative comps), Abercrombie lowered Q3 expectations again. After releasing those Q3 results yesterday, it lowered its Q4 outlook.
Absolutely not. And I have never said that I support them. All I have stated, and will state again is let's use facts, not distortions. The allegations that their catelog in question (with articles on oral sex, masturbation, orgies, and whatever) were freely and openly distributed to children are false. The articles may have existed (I haven't read them); but the magazine is SOLD to customers 18+ yrs old. That is a pretty major difference. A&F does not receive a dime of my money, nor will it likely get any. However, before accusing them of doing something, let's make our accusations based on fact; not fiction.
Note: I did NOT buy a copy of that rag; it was in a restaurant I had lunch in.
And I have no problems with that at all. In fact, based upon how A&F has conducted themselves, contrasted against .... let's use "Old Navy" as an example. I would have no problem seeing A&F going bankrupt.
Either that or sell the company to a group owned by Michael Jackson and Roman Polansky.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.