Choose Your Poison
For the past week, this article has been popping up on my rss news feed daily. It’s basically an article criticizing American Apparel, the Montreal-based, sweatshop-free clothing retailer, for being a proponent of porn when so much of their brand appeal hinges on an air of social responsibility; paying a little bit more for a responsibly made garment.
For those not familiar, American Apparel ads are often very provocative and typically enlist models who appear to be under 18. The photo here is a tamer ad sample featuring CEO and founder Dov Charney. The linked article even relates an instance where a 13-year-old girl was exposed to a hardcore gay porn mag in an AA store.
I’ve seen their ads before, and was aware of their image, but this article really made me think that they go too far. It’s really become a case of choose your poison when it comes to buying clothes. It’s either buy the major brands which often exploit their workers in sweatshops or you try to do some good and buy a sweatshop-free brand…only to end up inadvertantly supporting a company run by a pig that openly supports the exploitation of both men and women through pornography. The irony is just overwhelming.
Unfortunately it’s harder and harder to buy from anywhere without supporting some kind of unsavory activity. I just hope another company can rise to the top of the sweatshop-free heap and unseat Charney without the need to exploit anyone in any way.
Sorry if this is preachy or off-putting – I’m not out to be the morality police, so feel free to agree or disagree…I just read this article this week, and found myself a bit ashamed to be wearing my AA hoodie, and felt with the popularity of this brand this article really needed to get out there and be a point of more water cooler discussion. American Apparel: Socially responsible or just selectively responsible?
2 Responses to “Choose Your Poison”
Jason Dorn - January 26, 2009
Ah yes, I faced a similar dilemma after Nike bought out the makers of my favourite shoes, converse. I even went out of my way to buy sweatshop free shoes online that turned out the be complete crap and fell apart after a few months.
admin - January 26, 2009
Haha…I remember those…after they fell apart you were left in yet another dilemma.
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