Abercrombie & Fitch - Recommendation: Bad and Tacky

"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."

- Mike Jeffries, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch. As quoted in “The Man Behind Abercrombie & Fitch”. (2006)

How should we judge A&F’s marketing and advertising approach? Should we judge it at all within the parameters of corporate social responsibility? Many brands use an aspirational marketing approach to sell their products (have you ever seen an “average” looking model in any fashion campaign?). Companies try to sell a “lifestyle”, not a shirt or car or frying pan. A&F says that what it sells is “cool” – not a particular racial prototype. But, their main advertising does not reflect the diversity it has recently committed to – and, probably, does not reflect the diversity of who actually shops in its stores. Is that hypocritical? Of course. But, really, their sexualized, white–bread advertising is not that bad if compared to all the other CSR issues they do not address AT ALL like human rights, child labor, fair wages and the environment to name just a few. (See the full issues template here.)

Perhaps if A&F balanced out some of their more provocative advertising approaches with a commitment to human rights and fair labor, their actions would be more tolerable (look at American Apparel, after all). But, A&F seems to show no social responsibility at all except in the arena of diversity, which was forced upon them by a court order. Call it “diversity-washing.” Granted, there has been some progress on diversity within the company’s operations. The number of people of color enrolled in the retailer’s managers-in-training program has grown by more than 50%. They have partnered with many minority-focused organizations on diversity training and scholarship opportunities. But, in the end, making their advertising more inclusive would probably do more overall for minority teenagers then a few million (if that much) in scholarships. Perhaps it will be a gradual shift. As the company’s staff becomes more diverse (because of the court order), there will be more of an internal push for inclusive advertising.

We will see.

But even if their diversity score increases, their complete inaction on almost all of the other priority issues in our template will not win a “Good” from us. So, in summary, we feel that avoiding Abercrombie & Fitch is probably the best course of action. Score: 1.33.

And the Tacky: Honestly, we think its just so TACKY to wear a t-shirt with an ethnic slur (and to make a t-shirt with an ethnic slur is even worse!) Besides, wearing three shirts all on top of each other? There is very little true style that comes out of A&F. (At least J. Crew, even with its dismal score, cared enough to put some creativity in their designs.)

And not to get personal, but the CEO of A&F is just sort of scary - he is almost over 60, but has invested much money into his artificial appearance (think no wrinkles and lip plumper). Maybe he needs to obsess a little less about the superficial and a little more about the substance.