Staff Blog
Urban Outfitters usurps American Apparel’s porn-as-ads strategy
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Damnit, UO. Now I can't buy your cute frocks. |
| Courtesy urbanoutfitters.com |
In days past, Urban Outfitter's catalogs were somewhat classy. Yes, almost every picture was of a half-stoned girl in an extremely elegant dress emerging out of the woods. But they were usually covered up and naturally pretty, and the graphic artists decorated the page with ink drawings of bird, trees and flowers. It was wonderfully whimsical, really.
All of that went to hell in the spring 2009 catalog. Philly-based UO have ditched their respectable advertising strategy and replaced it with American Apparel's. Which it to say, they're making porn now. The new catalog is full of side-boobs, side-bums and maybe even a little side-vagina. Yes, you read the last bit right. UO is so committed to emulating American Apparel that they've one-upped their rivals and invented a new way of showing someone's privates without, 'ya know, showing them completely. Also, all of the models look 15 years old, and their despondent expressions make them appear stoned — on H, not on weed.
This sucks, because I have to boycott you now, UO. I stopped walking into American Apparel because I felt like a perv, and now you've went and done the same thing. Good riddance, side boobs.
Not that boycotting works, or anything, but there are so many better reasons to boycott Urban Outfitters than side boobs. I don’t even know where to start.
Do go on, cjmemay. Don’t leave us in suspense…
I like side boobs…
I like side boobs! no boycott for me…..
It’s really a shame that people are comparing UO to American Apparel, there really is no comparison. While the new catalog may show a bit more skin that usual, it is both tastefully done and beautifully executed. I feel they are taking on a more creative and artistic voice which I feel is a perfect fit and the right step in a new direction for them.
dear ms. otterbein: it is impossible to show the side of a vagina.
the word you might have used, to be accurate, is vulva.
the vagina, or “birth canal”, is inside a woman’s body and cannot be seen from the outside.
So, advertising has now become a more acceptable activity than porn? Is not the real problem the blatant commercialization of porn?
[...] >>> But fear not: Miraculously, URBN has not lost its edge. The new Urban Outfitters catalog contains enough sideboob to sufficiently rile the armpit hair of one City Paper contributor who’s already stopped going to American Apparel because it made her “feel like a [...]
those frocks make you look fat (the way you write is fat inside, regardless of how you look outside).
Urban Outiftter’s ads don’t feel genuine at all. At least you get the sense that American Apparel is using them as art – controversial art – still part of a concerted expression that everybody there believes in. When you suddenly start using a young naked woman in an ad like this it feels like your pandering or just trying to get attention. If anything, that’s much more offensive to women. It’s saying they’re just a tool you can use when you need some eyeballs. Pathetic.
Either do it because you think it means something or don’t do it at all. I imagine that this is why American Apparel ads strike a cord with people and nobody cares about Urban Outiftters ads.
Wait, let’s completely ignore the fact that a large portion of UO’s merchandise is stolen designs, or the fact that the founder alienates most of his customers by donating a large amount of money to the gay hating, gay bashing Rick Santorum. Yes, Holly, sideboob is the final straw.
It’s pathetic reporting like this article that makes the city paper a joke. It’s staff is full of frivolous hipsters who cater only to their own kind.
I thought Abercrombie and Fitch were really the modern pioneers where regular non-underwear catalogs were soft-core porn
Oh good grief, grow up and dust the hayseed off your shoes.
Yikes! Vitriolic comments abound! All things aside, I find it amusing that the way to market apparel is to take it off. It’s like the proverbial bad pickup line: “Nice dress, it’d look better on my floor.”
mmmm… side vulva.
Side-boob is a reason to look at a advertising. J O’ing and shopping simultaneously is called multi-tasking. I can save valuable time with urbn ads just as I have in the past with American Apparel.
[...] points out that American Apparel may have more to worry about than Mission District protesters. Urban Outfitters apparently has adopted the Los Angeles retailer’s advertising style of baring more skin than threads. Not that AA was a pioneer in that department. They simply [...]
Sorry you feel like a perv but half my female friends feel sexier as a result
I think UO’s next catalog should feature a giant black raging penis, right on the cover.
Oh.
Is it porn? Is it ripping off American Apparel? Maybe, but I don’t really care about all that. The thing that irritated me most about the new catalog is that it can hardly be called a catalog. Maybe I am just crazy, but I like to look at catalogs to preview the merchandise. Most of the pictures in the “catalog” look like they have been shot by a disposable camera from 3 miles away. If the subject is shot within a reasonable distance, they are being obscured by foliage. I don’t even know what they are selling in half of the pictures; the photo with the panty-less, side-boobed young lady happens to be for stockings and a duvet-cover. While trying too hard to be artsy, the catalog fails to do its main function- sell clothes.
[...] Some 3,000 people have beat me to the punch, many of them in the last month or so.Here's what Philadelphia CityPaper blogger Holly Otterbein had to say: In days past, Urban Outfitter's catalogs were somewhat [...]
UO has made a not so subtle habit of ripping off AA’s designs, so why not the ads? I admittedly am a former AA employee and it was a running joke with some of us here in the NYC stores to check and see how long it would take Urban to copy anything new that we got in. It was usually 3 weeks to a month. Shiny leggings, deep-v t-shirts, the romper, the figure skater dress, multi-colored skinny jeans, flex fleece hoodies…ALL jacked by Urban. It’s kind of pathetic.
[...] the Urban Outfitters catalogue today and came upon the photos that I saw in a City Paper Clog article a while back by Holly Otterbein. (Interesting how the risque half-nudes are in the middle, [...]
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ruth
http://laptopmessengerbag.info
Excuse me, where exactly did you believe to have found porn in the abovementioned catalogs? Are you sure to understand the term porn correctly?
As I have learned the hardest part of good journalism is research, be it a gaze into an up to date dictionary. I think you proove me right on that.
Although, holding a PhD in psychology, I just had to stumble on this one:
“I stopped walking into American Apparel because I felt like a perv […]”
Could it be that your problem is not a philological one but rather the symptom of something deeper which we have terms for and therapeutic methods?
Did you know that most of the problems we have with the world do not have their roots in that world but rather within ourselves? And did you know that, however, most people try to adjust the entire world to their problem instead of the other and easier way of working on themselves?
regards
julia
Wow, it’s amazing how much hate is generated by one person objecting to treating women like objects. Funny how women are now so “liberated” they’re not allowed to have any opinion that might be considered “traditional”.
Open discussion is a good thing, and some people objected to the author’s viewpoint with intelligent arguments of their own. Others used words like “fat” and “hayseed” and really showed their immaturity and hate.
I have every right to NOT buy something for whatever reason I want, and so does everyone else. That’s capitalism.
Right on Bob! UO is worth boycotting for many reasons. Above all, for me, is their production model – “sweat shop labor”.
I’m sorry that so many of you miss the point. Sur most models are young, but I would be surprised if the ones they are using now are older than 13. And it is soft porn. 13 year old girls posed like used lolitas that one might find on a child pron site. If you are going to hire models and pose themin risque “come and rape me” poses, then at least hire 18 year olds.
I was hoping someone would finally hit the mark- the fact that they are using CHILDREN is the issue (the only issue in my view)!
Pile on top of that the fact that they are all extremely underweight — wrong wrong wrong message to women or girls.
the issue here is the fact that both companies are male-dominant and the primary sex we see naked in either of the advertisements is female. go on and say that the women chose to be in the ads, but who is running to companies? men. who is choosing which advertisements get published? men. and why do women have to take their clothes off to be sexy? why does our media choose to portray women as ugly unless they have clothes off? and the fact that they are CHILDREN is even worse. go ahead, urban outfitters. start ‘em young. don’t worry about their dignity or safety. and another thing.. where are women who actually have curves? for anyone to achieve this body type would be completely unhealthy. this is complete sexism.
To the person that said Urban steals AA designs, that is very wrong. Just because they have similar items, doesn’t mean they were stolen. They carry what’s in. Walk into any similar store and you’ll find similar items. I highly doubt that AA sets the fashion trend for what’s in. It’s like saying H&M jacked AA for carrying v-knecks and rompers. All stores carry those items now, they copy trends.
As for the Urban spring ad, their always weird on their catalogues. I don’t see the big deal, it’s just a catalogue. It’s not like AA’s annoying porn ads that pop-up on websites. Also, what’s the point of “boycotting” a store? They are still going to get business, it’s not going to stop anyone from going there and handing their money over. It’s really stupid to say that your going to “boycott” a store.
So, American Apparel is the one designer that Urban doesn’t steal designs from?
BTW, why is the door at Urban always propped open? Born in a barn? Heating/cooling the great outdoors? Thanks for contributing to global warming, Urban.
We just received yet another UO catalog, which I am calling “Lolita gets dressed up.” As a mother of teenagers (boys and a girl) I find the whole thing disturbing–as your first responder said, “where do I even start…” Its the ads as porn, its the stoned look, its the relentless marketing to teens…