Dressed to depress - American Apparel ad belted for smutty schoolgirl clothing line
American Apparel has been come under fire yet again as concerned parents took to Twitter to demand the removal of a school girl miniskirt ad, part of another sexualised campaign selling school clothes to young girls.
The offending image, uploaded to the clothing retailer's UK Instagram account, presented a miniskirt-wearing youth leaning into a window car exposing her underwear beneath a tartan miniskirt while modelling clothing targeted towards school children.
Critics have slammed the retailer for its "pornification" of children as a result of the post.
Why will I never buy @americanapparel? It supports #pornification #objectification #sexualisation of women& children. pic.twitter.com/JnEYBJpVAu
— Dr Claire Rush (@DrClaireRush) August 7, 2014
The image was quickly removed from the social media account after Twitter erupted with objections to the sexualisation of children.
The campaign, aimed at under 16-year-olds, is not the first to come under fire for using sexual imagery to sell clothes to kids, as American Apparel sell cropped tops and shorts skirts most British school would ban.
In my day we couldn't wear spaghetti straps. American Apparel's racy new "Back to School" #ad: http://t.co/53QgscJPEI pic.twitter.com/YZj53tH3Xr — Rachel Jefferson (@Nealy17) August 8, 2014
Just seen American Apparel's advertising for their "Back To School" range. Their ads honestly get worse and worse! — Penny (@lilliesandlove) August 7, 2014
Peter Bradley, from children’s charity Kidcape yesterday condemned the “disgraceful” ads and advised parents to stop their children from buying the items.
Bradley said: “It’s something we find abhorrent. It’s about using underage pornography to sell products and the sexualisation of children, which cannot ever be justified.”
This is the latest controversy from the retailer which came under fire last month for posting a picture of the Challenger space shuttle disaster on Tumblr as part of one of its promotions.