A marketing campaign by American Apparel caused some controversy in New York City after the store introduced new female mannequins with pubic hair, which was covered by the brand's underwear.
The Washington Post reported that the mannequins exhibited in the main window of the store located on East Houston in Lower East Side were designed for the store to celebrate the natural beauty of women and to promote underwear in expectance of Valentine's Day in Lower East Side.
Various protests took place outside American Apparel's New York City store, protests which described the campaign as degrading for women, saying that the company's motives are more capitalist than feminist.
The Washington Post pointed out that this is not the first time American Apparel has used pubic hair for a controversial campaign. The company used Sasha Grey's image in a photo shoot which caused controversy due to showing her pubic hair.
In its article, The Washington Post pointed out that last month The New York Times published that pubic hair is back in feminine vogue. However, this didn't stop the store's marketing campaign from causing controversy among its consumers and clashes of opinion in the market.
The reaction on the matter reached social networks last weekend, with over 3,000 tweets about it, both in support and against the marketing campaign.
If American Apparel's marketing intention was to obtain a huge amount of publicity, their campaign of mannequins au naturel reached its objective. As they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
What do you think of our pubic hair PR crisis? https://t.co/7SnJONGoC2 @petracollins pic.twitter.com/U39WxQaNTK
- American Apparel (@americanapparel) Jan. 16, 2014
American Apparel stirs up controversy giving storefront mannequins pubic hair. Do you find this image offencive ? pic.twitter.com/VNUKWDOAuj
- Models Of Diversity (@ModsOfDiversity) Jan. 17, 2014