After seemingly bowing to public pressure, and pulling its Christmas 'group sex' catalog, Abercrombie & Fitch plans another porn catalog and will continue its tasteless ad campaign:
as the Field Guides were being pulled, the company announced it would feature its "infamous male and female greeters" on the day after Thanksgiving, the start of the Christmas shopping season.
"A dollar donation to Toys for Tots lets anyone snuggle up for a picture between two hunky, shirtless A&F guys," a news release said. "They'll make Santa think twice before he reaches for another slice of pumpkin pie."
Glad to see they have the spirit of Christmas there.
What did the Christmas catalog have that some found objectionable?
The 2003 Christmas issue, the slipcover says, offers "280 Pages of Moose, Ice Hockey, Chivalry, Group Sex & More … ."
One article says "a pleasant and supersafe alternative to [group sex] is group masturbation – sometimes called a circle jerk or Jack-and-Jill-Off."
Mark Millar, a comic book writer shares this thought: "My idea is you have the Old Testament, the New Testament, and this is the Final Testament. This is a thing about Jesus coming back as a 12-year-old kid … pontificating whether or not he should masturbate … ."
In another interview, Sari Locker, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sex," says: "College is the time when you have the greatest opportunity to have sex [and] the highest number of potential sexual partners … ."
And it goes on. Amidst all of this are disappointing numbers for A&F:
In October, for example, several chains - notably American Eagle and Abercrombie - showed double-digit declines in sales at stores open at least a year (American Eagle was off by 18 and Abercrombie by 14 percent) compared with a year earlier.
Not only that, but now 60 Minutes is investigating the store for 'lookism':
Two ex-managers for a clothing chain accused of discrimination say corporate representatives of the chain, Abercrombie & Fitch, routinely had them reduce the hours of less attractive salespeople.
A sad existence for a once venerable sporting goods company (think L.L. Bean).
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