God I hate them.

Fantastic advertising.

So instead of being made in sweatshops in china, they are made in LA by illegals. Interesting....

wow, I need to bookmark that page for later on tonight.....

Wow, those ads are well...damn, I am far from prude (I own a huge porn collection) but damn....that is like seriously soft core porn.

Whoever says "Sex sells anything"

IS DEAD WRONG. I'm ALL for a little sexy and presumptuous, but this is just a bit trashy in my mind. This is the reason why our nations male youth grab the Sunday paper and run into the bathroom... who needs playboy anymore?

Not cool, American Apparel. Just not cool.

I'm so torn on American Apparel. On one hand I like how their clothing is made in the US and pays it's workers a living wage (which is the reason the clothes are a little more expensive). On the other hand, most of the clothes are fugly and don't work for you if you aren't a size 2 and a scenester.

As far as the ads go, they are a business that is trying to sell their products, and business models have proved time and time again that sex sells. Do I wish it were that way? Not necessarily. I wish that advertising in general was a little less misogynistic, but I don't think we can lay blame solely on the company. They give the people what they want...and the people seem to want thinly veiled porn.

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback): As a mom of multiple kids, you relinquished your license to talk about what immature kids these days love to look at. Consider this your C&D notice.

Some of these girls could use a Happy Meal.

@MostlyHarmless: #1- How old you think I am?

#2- I'd rather buy my son a porno mag than this crap.

#3- If this is what my daughters aspire to become, put a bullet in my head. I'd rather they be a porn star themselves than this half assed attempt.

Jezebel is going to have a field day with this one, their hatred of American Apparel and its sexually harassing owner is epic.

Wow... I'd never seen any of those ads before. Okay, to be honest, I'd never even heard of American Apparel before today. But I know for a fact that I will be visiting their site. I love those pictures. The human body is nothing to be ashamed of, and keep in mind that sex is the fundamental reason for our existence. Without it, we wouldn't exist, so why not market with it? To think otherwise kind makes you, well... a prude. Must be America's Puritanical ancestry.

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback):
Lol. I do appreciate the "If you're going to do it, do it right; don't half-ass it" attitude.

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback): Sheesh, I was just kidding :/

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback):

Also, in a really lazy move, I halfassed my way through the original comment. (Imagine that, procrastinating at my procrastination.)

Anyways, it should have said something along the lines of "as a mom, you are now all mature and stuff, and therefore you have no idea how lame some of the not similarly enlightened folks can be."

I just cant find a way to say that succinctly AND make it sound funny-ish.

@dohtem: only a happy meal/only one?

@Joewithay: Look for the "Made in USA" label. Or, well, don't.

@brandihendrix: What are you talking about? Everyone needs a metallic gold leotard.

I really want to click on the article, but I don't want to be fired. Then again, if I give up eating because I have no income, I might have a future as an AA model....

America needs to get the f#ck over it. It's such an embarrassment to be a member of a society that practically riots in the streets over a single tit barely-revealed for a couple seconds during a football game...or that complains about these ads. Or any ads. Or frankly, damn near anything having to do with body parts in general. Grow up.

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback): Sunday paper? Psshh... there is so much free porn right on the internet. I've had broadband since I was 11...

No one objects to the use of "sluttiest" in the ads? I'm surprised, because posing semi-nude (ok almost totally nude, which is odd for clothing) and being a "slut" are totally different.

Where's the journalistic integrity?

See, I think mentioning the layoffs second is burying the lead here. But I also clicked through that whole ad slideshow, so what do I know?

This is not any different than Ambercrombie & Fitch's maybe gay/maybe not pin-up porn in their stores. Being a straight guy, I just can't get into the mood of shopping for jeans when there is a picture of a half naked muscle man in boxers grabbing his junk looking at me. Call me insecure.

@osiris73: I have to say...I'm a straight, non-scenester female, clearly not the targeted market for the amount of flesh in these ads. But they are captivating. From an artistic standpoint, they're pretty incredible. At least to my untrained eyes. :)

I'm thinking of taking a lunch break downtown today. Oh look there's AA, maybe they could use a photographer...?

You guys are going to have to make that 51 sluttiest ads. With numerous outtakes.

...

As for the layoffs, I like how I.C.E. hit-up AA in downtown who actually pays a legal wage. How about hitting California's central valley and seeing how many of the field-hands are documented immigrants being paid a legal wage? I support targeting and fining businesses that hire illegal immigrants, but I would like to see the businesses that take advantage of those immigrants be targeted first.

@CaesarBach: Insecure. ;) j/k

Kind of reminds me of something that happened in Victoria's Secret a few years ago. I was trying on this barely-there little thing in the dressing room and I spin around to see...a HUGE poster in the dressing room of one of their models wearing the exact same thing, but so much better than me. It was a little disheartening and I wonder why they don't try and keep those things out of the dressing room.

I did not buy anything that day.

hehe... while I was looking at this my wife peeked in from the other room and immediately accused me of looking at porn.

At least now I know the right excuse "Baby! They're just American Apparel ads! It's not porn!"

I still don't know what I'll do if she notices the trannies.

Honestly, what morons pay for porno anymore? Between free pic/video sites, your old sister (incestuous? .grin.) site fleshbot and bit torrent for any full length movies I want, I haven't paid for porno in the last two years except for the one time I rented one for a bacholer party limo bus.

If you pay regularly for porno you truly are one of the most pathetic people in the world.

@CaesarBach: What about 4 or 5 shirtless guys playing football? "Fumble! Oh no, dog pile!"

@brandihendrix: These types of stories require photographic evidence.

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback):

The nation's male youth runs to the bathroom with the Sunday paper?

Since when?

@MostlyHarmless: I don't mind growing older, but I ain't that far out of the loop YET!!

@zonk7ate9: Lucky you. I didn't include the interwebs option because these were printed ads, and I wanted to compare the equivolent.

@Esquire99: F YEAH!! Just think about those girls in high school, blue balling every guy in sight... just, wrong.

@Drew5764: I read it as a comment on the ads themselves being "slutty," but certainly not as a judgment on the models in the ads.

i think i saw nipple in of them and lol faye raegan is a porn star

seach faye reagan up

Those ads practically have smell-o-vision. Gross. It's about time they got popped by immigration. They are among the biggest wage busters in LA's garment district.

What they don't tell you is that these are really ads for power tools. Your choice of battery operated or plug-in.

@osiris73: I think you need context, though. These ads aren't being produced for the artistic and aesthetic quality of the human body - they're being produced because Dov Charney, the sleazeball owner of American Apparel. He's not a good person, and seems to objectify women at every turn.

People who complain about their clothes being ugly or the store being for hipsters/scenesters/whatever ridiculous name they come up with have probably never actually set foot in one. Cause if they had they would realize half the store is pretty much basics; tshirts, underwear, and other stuff that most everyone wears everyday, albeit often in a far slimmer size and cut then most people wear. I own a closet full of American Apparel stuff and none of it is retro 80's stuff; almost all of it are button up shirts, dress pants, tshirts, or other basics. I wear most of it to work in a most certainly not hip workplace; a state agency.

And commentors need to stop being neurotic about weight issues. On one thread everyone piles on for people choosing to be fat, choosing to eat terrible food, and then when theres ad's of people being slim, everyone calls them anorexic. For God sakes the first photo shown on the site is of a girl whose 150 lbs. which no one would suggest is anorexic by any stretch of the imagination. So whats the ideal look for the Consumerist reader? The kind of dumpy, but not too dumpy girl and the guy with a slight paunch, but not too much? Jesus.

My only problem with these ads is that so many of those girls are sporting that strung-out-on-heroin look that I thought died in the nineties. Or is that retro now? Anyway, in this economy, I didn't think anyone could afford heroin anymore.

@halfcuban: Nice. I agree. I'd rather someone just look generally healthy, I guess. Nothing is more attractive than a man or woman who feels comfortable in their own skin, who might have more or less but who the frig cares.

The neurotic ones are party poopers.

@Drew5764: I agree with veg-o-matic. I think the title was supposed to be compelling and tongue-in-cheek, not a commentary. It's very obvious that the article-writers consider the AA ads artistic photography. Otherwise they'd have selected all nude photos and been done with it.

@calquist: well, everyone who is on the cast of a live action rocky horror picture show.

@brandihendrix: yeah, they'd do much better to show a poster of a model wearing their lingerie, poorly fitted and with weird bulges - right next to the mirror.
this is why popular girls in high school keep a few not so pretty friends around: it makes them look better by comparison

@Verucalise(wantsherfigureback): ok, i'm not trying to be snide or mean, but i did get a giggle out of your handle mentioning you want your [i know it's post pregnancy] figure back and talking about being comfortable in your own skin.
but of course it's hard to be comfortable in your own skin when you just spent 9 months harboring a little belly stretcher

Love their ads.

Hate what they stand for.

End result = window shopping

@osiris73: Put me down as a "prude" then.

I love my wife's body, it's one of the reasons I married her. I'm not against sex. But that's not the only reason I love my wife.

Porn has the effect of treating women as objects and not people. It rips apart families and causes unhealthy addictions.

Your statement about not being ashamed of the human body is stupid. Do you walk around naked in public? There is a proper time and place for exposing body parts, and advertisements aren't the place.

@YouDidWhatNow?: And you need to learn what the words "modesty" and "decency" mean, and grow up yourself.