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[Click here to view the USA Today and Wall Street Journal ads]
Some corporations dump toxic chemicals into our rivers. Others spit poisonous toxins into the air.
THEN THERE S ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH...
Actively flooding today's youth market with an overdose of sex and self-gratification, all in the name of shareholder profit. It's high time they were called to account for their cultural pollution.
Did you know? At the direction of their CEO Michael Jeffries, A&F (ANF) unapologetically uses erotic and fully nude images to entice teenage buyers to their stores.
Did you know? Abercrombie actually marketed thong underwear to pre-teens as young as 10 years old, imprinted with lurid adult expressions like "Eye Candy" and "Wink, Wink."
Did you know? A&F Quarterly, the lifestyle-driven catalog that carries their main brand message, regularly displays sexual images that have included group sex and student-teacher sex, as well as carrying articles on "creative drinking" recipes like "Brain Hemorage," "Orgasm," and "Dirty Girl Scout Cookie."
Did you know? Their brand message consistently demeans women from teens to (incredibly) the elderly by suggesting a woman s body is nothing more than a sexual playground for young males.
Did you know? While A&F has published explicit interviews with porn stars, including sex tips from a 19-year old porn actress, they insist their brand s use of sex content is merely "youthful and spirited, yet responsible."
SO WHO S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HUMAN TOLL? The selfish sex-driven mindset that A&F s brand presents just teaches kids self-indulgence. And the sex play they maintain is "responsible" only adds to the intolerable weight of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in America today now at epidemic proportions among the very market they target.
Consider the cultural fallout: More than half of all new AIDS infections come from their same target market. Add to that some 2700 teenagers who become pregnant each day in America, while 15.3 million new cases of STD infections occur every year. And after 10 years, with rape the only violent crime that s increased in America, rape committed by teenage males as young as 14 is now at an all-time high.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
You have to ask yourself why any responsible retailer would deliberately promote promiscuous sex and heavy alcohol use to sell their products to such a vulnerable, high-risk youth audience? Profit is not a bad thing...it s the engine that drives our capitalist economy. But profit at the expense of such tragic cultural damage is nothing but crass, irresponsible profiteering.
WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW THAT YOU KNOW?
If A&F is applauded for brilliant brand management, then profit has replaced principle in today s portfolios. While operating a $640+ million company with no debt may play well on Wall Street, Abercrombie s moral bankruptcy is creating a cultural debt on Main Street that may never be repaid. Every single A&F shareholder has a clear responsibility to see that their money no longer funds the intentional manipulation of vulnerable youth through sex.
Now that you know what A&F is doing, what will you do?
Don t invest in cultural pollution. Divest your ANF.
If you're invested in Abercrombie & Fitch, are you fully aware of what THEY are invested in?
And if you do know, then why are you still holding their stock?
Contact Abercrombie & Fitch's Board of Directors Tell them to stop selling sex to kids just to sell clothes
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Copyright
© 2003 Citizens for Community Values, Inc.
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