Staring at a blonde, beefcake model, his dreamy eyes transfixed on a faraway point, we wonder what this has anything to do with clothes. His studly arms are fastening his football equipment, but oddly enough, he isn't wearing a jersey or any type of shirt on his buff body. For that matter, his dirt-dusted shorts are pulled down so low that not only can you see his underwear, but with one more tiny tug, you just might see everything.
The man in question is not an exotic dancer, but the front man for Abercrombie & Fitch's "Back to School" ad campaign, who graces the cover of A&F Quarterly and welcomes University students to the brand-new Abercrombie & Fitch store in Charlottesville's Fashion Square Mall.
The opening of the store comes as a pleasant surprise to some University shoppers, who thought Fashion Square was in need of a popular "anchor" store like Abercrombie & Fitch. The management team behind the fall opening is also thrilled to establish a place in a town so famously college-oriented.
"We are utterly thrilled and excited to get a chance to open up here," Abercrombie & Fitch store manager Johnnie Almazan said. "It's important for us to open up in Charlottesville, as it will perpetuate our business and help us in recruiting employees."
Although the company started more than 200 years ago as a hunting and fishing outfitter, today Abercrombie & Fitch aims its marketing through television and print ads toward the 18- to 24-year-old All-American college student. And while Abercrombie & Fitch has sustained great popularity and revenue over the years, the company also has endured a fair share of media criticism concerning the provocative and playful theme of its ad campaign.
Typical Abercrombie ads feature men like the football stud and his buddies dashing around a football field with their underwear dangling at new lows, or in the new A&F Quarterly, which you have to show an ID to buy, a sexy female model dancing topless on a coffee table wearing nothing but her boy-cut Abercrombie "tightie-whities."
In response to critics who say Abercrombie & Fitch ads not only exploit sex to sell but advertise more skin than sweater, the president and creative director of the company's advertisement firm told the New York Times, "Fine. Let them complain. The kids love it. It's for them."
Regardless of the nature of its ads, Abercrombie & Fitch's popularity has landed the company a storefront in Fashion Square Mall, a shopping locale heavily frequented by University students.
"There has been a lot of controversy concerning our ads," Alamazan said. "But in some ways we do sell lifestyles. We show young adults having the times of their lives."
So will University students be enticed by the sensual black and white Abercrombie & Fitch ads now hanging in the new local store?
"Abercrombie ads are obviously provocative and controversial, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a perfume or clothing brand that's marketed to young people that isn't," second-year College student Jami English said.
Many Abercrombie & Fitch fans believe the ads are only one aspect of the store's success. Not only do many University students enjoy the aesthetically pleasing models on the Abercrombie bags, posters and catalogue covers, they are not at all offended by the sensational nature of the advertisements. University students clad in Abercrombie logo T-shirts, hats, jeans, corduroys and khakis stroll our campus on a daily basis, sending us one possible message: Sexy ads or not, Abercrombie & Fitch sells.
"I doubt Abercrombie's ads will have much to do with the Charlottesville store's popularity," second-year College student Taylor Miffleton said. "Abercrombie & Fitch is a popular store among college kids, and it is most likely going to do really well at Fashion Square."
Miffleton echoed many University students' sentiments in expressing that Abercrombie & Fitch comes as a welcome addition to what they call a mediocre shopping mall.
So while Abercrombie's marketing scheme has caused a national frenzy, when it comes to shopping, students have spoken that they want the clothes even if the models don't.
After flipping through shockingly nude and sexual pictures in the A&F Quarterly, the purpose of the catalogue is clearly to promote the company's image over specific pieces of merchandise. The infamously gorgeous Abercrombie & Fitch models engage in a good old-fashioned game of co-ed naked football, roll around in rumpled sheets and pose like neoclassical nude statues - even the liberal college student will be shocked. After 121 pages of what could be mistaken as an issue of Penthouse, it finally turns to the catalogue's assumed purpose: the clothing.
Pairing the popularity of ordering clothing through catalogues with Abercrombie & Fitch's sensational shrink-wrapped package, shoppers may wonder why they should fight Route 29 traffic to Fashion Square Mall when they've got it all in the palm of their hands.
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