Dominique Williams
Brand Failure: American Apparel
Brand Image Marketing
February 27th, 2019
American Apparel
The company American Apparel was based in downtown Los Angeles, California. The brand was off to a very great start for the first couple of years, then suddenly started to crash. There were many reasons to lead to this crash, but one main reason was due to their advertisements.
American Apparel displayed many advertisements that consumers did not support. Back in 2014, American Apparel showcased an advertisement that showed a topless model with the words “Made in Bangladesh” written across. This advertisement was not created to promote the jeans the model was wearing. It was created to gain recognition about the company’s fair labor practices.(Stampler, 2014) American Apparel advertisements were very provocative and disturbing for some people. In addition to provocative ads, there was an advertisement where a topless model laid in between a man legs with her tongue on his peonage area. The man in the picture was allegedly Dov Charney, the ex founder of American Apparel.
Due to these horrible ads American Apparel have received a load of sexual harassment lawsuits, the company filed for Bankruptcy twice, and it was removed from the New York Stock Exchange list. American Apparel was made out to be the biggest company in
The United States because, the company accumulated almost $211 million annually.
The cause for this brand failure was brand deception. Brand deception is when the marketing strategies of a brand tournishes the company’s reputation. The ads that American Apparel were displaying affected the brands equity and the brands image of the business.
In my opinion American Apparel can never make a comeback. If there was a chance i would be by partnering up with a celebrity, but because of the company’s bad reputation I don’t think any celebrity would put their self image in jeopardy.
Citation
Tfl. “American Apparel: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an All-American Business.” The Fashion Law, The Fashion Law, 20 Aug. 2017, www.thefashionlaw.com/home/the-rise-and-fall-of-american-apparel.
“10 Most Controversial American Apparel Ads.” Time, Time, time.com/2901435/charney-american-apparel-ads/.
