American Apparel Advertisement (Fernando Vazquez)

         American Apparel is a worldwide known clothing store that has stirred controversy over their advertisements many times in the past. Mainly using over sexualized women in their advertisements, American Apparel has appealed to the male audience as well as illustrating what an “ideal” woman should look like and provide for men. In particular, this female model is wearing a romper-like garb that covers her body. She is also lying upwards on a white bed with her arms behind her head, and her legs spread out. Only two colors are used: black and white which is not uncommon for American Apparels advertisements since white and dark colors are generally used to create high contrast. 

            In a culture that uses female figures as a way to sell merchandise, American Apparel used Now Open to bring in consumers to their store by primarily focusing on attracting males using a pretty female model. The model is posed exceedingly submissively to the viewer with her legs spread out, emitting a sort of voyeuristic quality and as well as amplifying the models vulnerability and sexuality. This is further enhanced by the title of the image Now Open, which is the name of the line that they are selling, but when it is placed beside a woman is obviously passive, the phrase changes completely.  By using this sexual imagery, American Apparel’s advertisements can be noticed and sell not only the “clothes” that they appear to be advertising, but the female as well. Our view on female bodies has significantly changed over the decades. Nowadays, many people have grown accustomed to posters and advertisements that reveal too much, and try to sell their product by being provocative and initiate a shock value to draw attention to their advertisements.