One of Sabrina's comments in class brought up a great point on the already-beaten-to-death topic of Abercrombie & Fitch. Not once in my life have I seen an actual advertisement for this company anywhere but inside one of their stores. Not once have I turned on the television to see a wrestling match between two ripped jocks filmed in black and white, and yet profits roll in by the millions. This effortless success is a homoerotic mystery and I intend to get to the bottom of it.
Somewhere along the line freaky, sixty!!!!!-year-old jock surfer dude Mike Jeffries (CEO, seen above. Here and here too, if you can stomach it) decided that he wanted the brand to "sizzle with sex". We would usually discuss advertising in terms of being welcoming, person-specific, and including, but it seems Jeffries has built his "advertising" empire solely on the basis of being excluding. Not only are we not able to latch onto a nonexistent campaign, but we also can't possibly see anything in relation to us in the softcore pornography that usually defines the Abercrombie brand. The naked models, attractive employees, and expensive clothes exist on a level above us. Something unreachable. And perhaps our desire to be included in this world of perfect teeth and ambiguous sexuality is what drives us back into the stores when we should know better.
I'm certainly not saying that this technique works on everyone. I stopped shopping at Abercrombie back in high school and started to see the moose on my chest as a sign of shame. I grew up. But something has to be said for the amount of money this company brings in without any semblance of an outside marketing scheme. Because behind all of that plastic surgery, Mike Jeffries has a brain and a plan. And I think we should put our feelings towards the brand aside to recognize that somehow he's done a damn good job.
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