Abercrombie & Fitch Display Obscene Imagery
On March 27, 2008, the New York Post reported that Abercrombie & Fitch is releasing a new catalog by Bruce Weber full of even sexier shots of scantily clad teen models-but this time, it will be sold only in London and priced at close to $200, "like an art book," said an insider. The last A&F catalog in 2003, which sold for just $6 in the US, caused such an outcry the company stopped making them. But the A&F stores still love the scandalous pictures.
In February of 2008, the Associated Press reported that police removed two ads with Abercrombie & Fitch images from a Virginia Beach store and charged the manager on a misdemeanor obscenity charge. Abercrombie & Fitch said Monday that city police overreacted by confiscating two display photos of scantily clad men and a woman.
"Police issued the summons Saturday after Abercrombie management did not heed warnings to remove the images from the Lynnhaven Mall store after some customers complained," police spokesman Adam Bernstein said.
"The marketing images in question show less skin than you see any summer day at the beach. And certainly less than the plumber working on your kitchen sink," Abercrombie & Fitch said in a statement.
City code bars the display of "obscene materials in a business that is open to juveniles," Bernstein said.
Abercrombie & Fitch has earned a reputation for its risque catalogs and promotional photography featuring scantily clothed models.
In 2003, the company halted publication of its A&F quarterly catalog after seven years. There had been complaints about sexually suggestive photographs, though Abercrombie spokesman Tom Lennox would not concede that was the reason the catalog's US run ended. "The Quarterly just ran its course, and it was time for a new direction," Lennox said.
WorldNetDaily.com reported that the 2003 Abercrombie & Fitch catalog contained forty-five specific portrayals of sexual imagery in the first 120 pages targeting ten to thirteen year olds. Actual clothing did not begin being advertised until page 120.
In 2005, the Associated Press reported two-dozen teenage girls in Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, said that some of the company's T-shirts degrade women by printing illicit sayings on the front of shirts pointing to provocative places.
Some call them innocent and flirty, but American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon says the messages imply the wrong message. "It implies teens are loose and carefree with their bodies. It just isn't true. Millions of young people are choosing to remain pure until marriage."
A writer for Baptist Press said, " Would you let your kids wear clothing emblazoned with the Playboy or Penthouse logo? Then why Abercrombie & Fitch? Christian parents, like all parents, want their kids to be happy and popular. Many will argue that this is just no big deal. It's just clothing. No, it's not just clothing, just advertising or just publicity. It's buying into a lifestyle, rewarding pornography, and advertising sexual promiscuity."