Abercrombie Bitch

This is a billboard that is now on display above the Abercrombie & Fitch store on College Green in Dublin (the billboard pictured is in Brussels, but the billboard in Dublin is identical). It's huge and it's attention grabbing and it's in one of the busiest areas in the city. 

So from an advertising standpoint, it's pretty good, right? Well, no. All A&F seem to have succeeded in doing is piss me off. For quite a few reasons:

1. This is objectification in it's worst form

They have not only turned this man into an object, they've turned him into part of an object. The head of the image and anything below the crotch has been cropped out, and the focus of the image is clearly the man's muscular torso. 

This clothing company are trying to use an almost naked man to sell their clothes. Just... think about that for a second. 

2. This is a highly sexualised image

He seems to be actually in the act of taking the jeans off. This is probably the lowest they could pull the jeans down without his genitals being shown, and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if some Photoshop had to be done to remove the base of his penis from the image. 

This is on display in a very public area, close to many tourist attractions and main streets. Hundreds, probably thousands of children walk past this billboard on a daily basis now and I personally wouldn't want my child to be exposed to this image in a context of normality. This is not a normal or acceptable ad.

I don't know about anyone else but attempting to make the photo look "artsy" by putting it in black and white isn't fooling me.

3. This is an unrealistic depiction and idealisation of the male form

Lots of men will see this ad. Boys and young men are particularily vulnerable to low self esteem and negative body image, and I don't think this is helping. This man is being sold as something that you want. He is supposed to be sexy. 

The message being sent out is that in order to be sexy you should have no shirt, no body fat, no chest or pubic hair, no face and indeed, no discernable identity. There is increasing body pressure on men these days and what is portrayed here is near impossible to achieve, not healthy, and in my opinion, not really very sexy. Men are being told that this is what to aim for.

Lucky for me, this ad hasn't changed my view of what a desirable man should look like, because if I were looking for a man who looked like this, I'd be searching for a while. Plus, everyone knows that all the headless bodybuilders with alopecia are either gay or taken.

4. This is not feminist

One of the most common comments I've heard about this billboard so far is "If this were a photo of a woman, there'd be outrage".

Well speaking as a feminist, I am outraged. Obviously I can only speak for myself but I like to think that other feminists wouldn't be too happy either. Objectifying men does not nullify the objectification of women, it only makes the problem twice as bad.

This is not the kind of equality we are looking for.

5. This is not a clothing ad

What are these guys trying to sell anyway? As far as I know, A&F is a clothing brand. Presumably their adverts would attempt to showcase and persuade you to buy A&F clothes. But instead they've made this man's nakedness the focus of this billboard, and the only clothing visible at all is a couple of inches of waistband, which don't even display the company logo or any other sign that they are A&F jeans. The model is actually blocking out the brand name. If I weren't familiar with the brand already I'd have no clue what this ad was even for.

Seeing this ad, I do not want to buy a pair of A&F jeans. I pity anyone that does.