Last week, a group of feminist protestors swarmed the NoHo American Apparel on the grounds that its advertising and aesthetic objectifies women. That was a unified stance against for a clear and tangible cause. That certainly wasn’t the case in last night’s attack on the Williamsburg store, which was carried out by over 50 people clad in all black and ski masks. They threw rocks through the window, started trash fires, and basically caused all manner of mayhem on North 6th Street. Their reasoning is unknown to the media thus far.
Why, you might wonder, is American Apparel under so much fire? Well, because the company’s marketing tactics are fucking abhorrent. There seems to be no shortage of ammunition to use against Dov Charney, the company’s CEO:
1) Dov Charney allegedly fires “ugly” employees
2) Their recent “best butt” competition, which just featured disembodied bums. I love it when people try to spin this as “empowering!! ”
3) They’ll keep on churning out advertisements with women in compromising sexual positions forever, inciting competitors to do the same.
4) They hock ugly, neon spandex shit.
5) There have been about six million sexual harassment cases against Charney by models and other employees.
6) They made Woody Allen really angry.
Really, the only two good things about the company are the fact that all their clothing is made in the United States and their unisex white T-shirts (and those are still overpriced, so I’m not sure if it counts). No wonder they’re getting rocks thrown through their windows.
