No, this is not an ad in the back pages of the Village Voice advertising "Asian body work" or "exotic escorts," even though it could soon be on the reverse of the L Magazine, where American Apparel ads usually hang out.
With the launch of AA's new line of bedding—pillowcases or twin/queen/king sheet sets in either gray or white—comes a whole new reason for scantily-clad models. Except you see, since these items aren't clothing, there's really no need to bother with cladding at all. And so we have the typical American Apparel flash-heavy photos of models in compromising positions, seemingly following the rules of callgirl ads.
As more AAs open around the world, it looks as though they are increasingly embracing a skeevy image that once only belonged to the CEO, Dov Charney. Past use of at least two well-known pornstars in campaigns and the recent installation of stripper-ish signs on their storefronts further support this. Of course it also didn't help that when we visited the AA homepage today, we were greeted by "Sophia" modeling territories beyond her mesh thong.
Now we're no prudes, but this second group of sheet poses does not make us want to buy their $40-and-up bedding any more than mud wrestling makes us crave chocolate pudding. Leave the back-page callgirls alone, Dov, unless you'd like to hire them, but oh wait—you've already got problems there.
