Editorial

Although the game is not yet over, score one for the good guys!

After more than three years of efforts, it appears that trendy clothier Abercrombie & Fitch has knuckled under the pressure and pulled its latest pornographic "magalog" which regularly features naked and partially naked young people and other pornographic material for the purpose of selling its products.

Still, it’s premature to declare total victory.

On Dec. 1 during the closing hours of preparing this issue of the Witness and while putting the final touches on my editorial, "A&F: Pornography and blasphemy at Christmas," I received an e-mail from the American Decency Association announcing that A&F has removed "The Christmas Field Guide" quarterly from its 651 stores nationwide. After publishing three editorials over the last two years (July 12, 2001, Nov. 8, 2001 and May 30, 2002) criticizing A&F and urging Florida Baptists to join a growing boycott against the company, needless to say, I was delighted to hear the news.

In a Dec. 1 article for National Review Online, Anne Morse reported that A&F made the decision to pull the quarterly a mere four days before the official start of the Christmas shopping season. The action was reported by a store manager in Bethesda, Maryland, who said that all stores were ordered — without explanation — to stop selling the quarterly on Nov. 25. An official at the company’s headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, confirmed the action, noting that A&F has been getting 300 calls per hour complaining about the quarterly since a recent "Focus on the Family" radio broadcast by James Dobson.

It seems that Dobson’s efforts, added to the opposition of former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, Chuck Colson, the American Decency Association and the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, was enough to cause A&F to realize it was heading for a economic disaster.

What was the cause of this impending economic disaster? A pornographic — and blasphemous — Christmas catalog that WorldNetDaily.com columnist Kevin McCullough notes included 45 "specific portrayals of sexual imagery in the first 120 pages."

McCullough continues, "The 45 images include overt portrayals of group sex, lots of teen and young adult nudity, men kissing, and teens/young adults frolicking in a river engaging in sexual activity in multiple group settings."

The National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families provides the following summary:

• The magalog is introduced with a slipcover quote, "280 Pages of Moose, Ice Hockey, Chivalry, Group Sex & More."

• Mark Millar, a comic book writer, says in an interview, "My idea is that you have the Old Testament, the New Testament and this is the Final Testament," calling it "a thing about Jesus coming back as a 12-year-old kid ... pontificating" about whether or not he should commit a certain sex act. I dare not be more explicit in a family newspaper!

• An interview with Sari Locker, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sex, notes, "College is the time when you have the greatest opportunity to have sex [and] the highest number of potential partners...."

• A separate article on "Group Sex" advises students on a "pleasant and supersafe alternative" to group sex. Again, given the family nature of this newspaper, I will not indicate this "alternative."

• "Teenage girls are led to believe that if they are to be ‘cool’ then they should be sexually ‘free’ and liberated. They cannot say no. They are encouraged to become the sexual aggressor. They must be sexually active."

• "Teenage boys are presented with homoerotic imagery and messages which are intended to desensitize any objection to experimentation with deviant sex acts."

Before pulling the magalog — which A&F has described previously in a statement as the "cornerstone" of its communications strategy with its customers — company officials defended the publication, noting that it is targeted to college students and "celebrates a youthful and spirited yet responsible lifestyle."

Far from promoting responsible lifestyles, A&F is a corporate purveyor of perversity profiting from its prurient practices. And what’s even worse is that many Baptist youth (and parents) are enabling this promotion of promiscuous sexuality through their patronage of A&F.

Clearly, it’s not innovative that a clothing line is marketed with sex. This is an all-too-common feature of Madison Avenue campaigns for all kinds of products. Nevertheless, A&F is breaking barriers of decency that set it apart from other companies.

Further, the Christmas quarterly is only the most recent, if not most blasphemous, obscene and deviant edition. A&F has demonstrated a pattern of corporate irresponsibility for which it should be held accountable. Until it has demonstrated a different pattern, the pressure should not let up.

This isn’t the first time A&F has backed away from its pornographic magalog.

Two years ago, the company pulled its Christmas catalog in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "It just came down on balance that this Christmas being a time of pushing the envelope was not a right thing to do," A&F chairman and CEO Michael S. Jeffries told the New York Times.

By the following May, however, A&F was marketing sexually suggestive "kiddie thongs" for girls with the words "eye candy" and "wink, wink" printed on the front. A&F spokesman Hampton Carney said of the thongs: "It’s cute and fun and sweet," adding that "it’s not appropriate for a seven-year-old, but it is appropriate for a 10-year-old. Once you get about 10, you start to care about your underwear, and you start to care about your clothes."

As delighted as I am with A&F’s decision to pull the publication, I’m not ready to declare victory in the battle.

NRO’s Morse reported that subscribers to the magalog will continue to get the quarterly — which presumably will continue it’s past pornographic ways. More evidence is needed before it can be said that this company has made a determined and final change in its marketing practices. Further, the corporate culture of using promiscuous sexuality will be difficult to extricate from A&F’s marketing.

What can you do?

1. Until A&F demonstrates a complete transformation in its marketing philosophy (starting, but not concluding, with permanently discontinuing its pornographic magalog), take your clothing dollars elsewhere. Then write A&F’s president and tell him you’ve done so.

Michael Jeffries — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Abercrombie & Fitch
6301 Fitch Path
New Albany, OH 43054
Phone: 614-283-6500
www.abercrombie.com

2. Sign the Stop Abercrombie & Fitch petition at the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families Web site (www.stopaf.org), which will be sent to A&F’s CEO.

3. Tell others about the A&F boycott and encourage them to participate.

Parents, surely you wouldn’t permit your children to wear clothing with the corporate logos of pornographic publications like Playboy. Given the unassailable reality that A&F is trading in the very same slime, why do you allow your children to wear A&F apparel (especially since the company’s name is prominently featured in all of its products)?

This Christmas, take a stand against corporate perversity. Boycott Abercrombie & Fitch.