The other night Tiffany posted on Facebook about how the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch gave an interview with Salon magazine in 2006, where he said how much he disliked fat people and that his clothing were only for skinny people and the cool crowd. Read more HERE.
As an American I believe he has the right to feel and say whatever he wants. I also believe that we have the right to react however we want. Abercrombie & Fitch has been an iconic American company for so long it is a shame what it has come to. It is a far cry from the days of being an elite outfitter for outdoorsman, I doubt any of their “Models” have even been camping. Since Michael Jeffries took over it has become a symbol and message of what is wrong with America. There ads are borderline child pornography and the message which is clearly stated by it’s CEO is that it is okay to treat people like crap and make sure they know they don’t fit in.
What I find ironic about his stance is that from 2010-2011 A&F was slated to close over 100 stores because of Jeffries unwillingness to lower prices in a struggling economy. It was Jeffries having to cave in and introduce sales and lower prices that brought them back to financial solvency.
Michael Jeffries Top Jerk Quotes:
Quotable Quotes From Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, About the Philosophy and Business Practices of Abercrombie & Fitch:
“How does a store look? How does it feel? How does it smell? That’s what I’m obsessed with.”
“We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.”
“I think that what we represent sexually is healthy. It’s playful. It’s not dark. It’s not degrading! And it’s not gay, and it’s not straight, and it’s not black, and it’s not white. It’s not about any labels. That would be cynical, and we’re not cynical! It’s all depicting this wonderful camaraderie, friendship, and playfulness that exist in this generation and, candidly, does not exist in the older generation.”
“People said we were cynical, that we were sexualizing little girls. But you know what? I still think those are cute underwear for little girls. And I think anybody who gets on a bandwagon about thongs for little girls is crazy. Just crazy! There’s so much craziness about sex in this country. It’s nuts! I can see getting upset about letting your girl hang out with a bunch of old pervs, but why would you let your girl hang out with a bunch of old pervs?”
“Listen, do we go too far sometimes? Absolutely. But we push the envelope, and we try to be funny, and we try to stay authentic and relevant to our target customer. I really don’t care what anyone other than our target customer thinks.”
“Dude, I’m not an old fart who wears his jeans up at his shoulders.”
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he says. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”
