| Retailer praised for cleaning up and curbing sexual exploitation in adsWashington, D.C. (March 26, 2015) – National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE) announces the removal of American Apparel from the annual Dirty Dozen List of top contributors to and profiteers from sexual exploitation in the United States. NCSE praises the retailer for the reevaluation and apparent change to the organization’s leadership, advertising strategy and brand identity, which have been purposely done to avoid the sexual exploitation of women just to sell products. This week, the retailer also cleaned up its online ads by deleting pornographic images from its site.
“We are pleased to remove American Apparel from the Dirty Dozen List. Sexual exploitation has no place in society, especially in advertisements targeted towards teenage girls,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director, National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “In the past, American Apparel regularly featured nude or provocatively posed young girls with an emphasis on breasts, buttocks and pubic area. Ads like these do nothing but promote a culture of sexual exploitation and normalize the attitude that women are sex objects,” added Hawkins. NCSE has publicly targeted American Apparel since early 2014 when then-CEO was charged with harassing and exploiting young female employees and sent a letter to the company before including American Apparel on the 2015 Dirty Dozen List this past January. National Center on Sexual Exploitation urges its supporters and more than 280 coalition partners to thank American Apparel for these improved changes at www.EndSexualExploitation.org/ ### |
