American Apparel Yoga Porn Ad – Seriously?

Posted by blainegarrett on Sep 4th, 2009 | 3 comments

Is American Apparel really trying to sell Yoga clothes?

I ran across the following animated ad for American Apparel’s  “YOGA” line today featuring a girl doing arguably pornographic poses rather than yoga.

I’m not going to go as far as to say it is disgusting or indecent (I’ll let others form those opinions). However, I think it is just stupid. You wouldn’t take this ad to be a source for yoga instruction, so why would you think it would be a good ad for yoga clothing? Also, I’d like to know how many people that shop at American Apparel and buy yoga gear are going actually do yoga and not just wear it to the club is some ironicy fashion statement… like those skinny dorks that wear GOLD’S GYM shirts.

I don’t normally get too upset over advertising anymore since there are probably more important things to get upset over. However, a part of me gets irate every time I read a story of some guy raping his wife because they are married or advertising that is just offensive (like the Peta ads). That said, I wouldn’t say I am “feminist”, but I do have a mom, and sister-in-laws, nieces, and aunts, and have done youth mentoring. So when I see advertising like this, I get irritated.

I’m not trying to sound like a prude. I’m ok with “sexy” advertising and erotic art, etc etc. However, this girl might as well be , naked, spread eagle, on a yoga mat and it would be about the same level of marketing. Sadly, yes, both are probably fairly effective in their target market.

As an aside, I checked out the source code for the blog this was being displayed on and saw that it was part of the the MediaPlex ad network. Their handle is “Intelligent Technology for Digital Marketing”. I’m sure they mean “intelligent” in the data-mining/machine-learning sense, but the irony is not lost on me. This ad, like most advertising in general, is not going to win any awards for “smart advertising”. I don’t know for a fact that these are not actual yoga moves but I don’t think you do yoga on a couch. Otherwise, this could pass as screen shots of a porn where the yoga instructor seduces one of her students.

End rant. The rest of the animation cells are below. Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

3 Responses

1. Xtine says:

   September 4, 2009 at 1:00 pm

   Brian – Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am pretty numb to American Apparel – in my opinion, they are trying way too hard to be ________. They come across as desperate.

   But what really bothers me about these ads is how inaccurately they portray yoga. Why the hell is she turning her head in that first “pose”? – Actually a pretty stupid thing to do in that position. I probably don’t know how to use the postmodern term – but to me this represents post(post?)modern yoga – and for the purely artistic aspect of the ads – well – more luck to them. Yogis are going to get seriously annoyed at how yoga is portayed here… and i’m one of those seriously annoyed yogis – but at the same time pretty indifferent. Let them porn-ify yoga – it’s not like it hasn’t been done since the beginning. Nothing is sacred… and I’m okay with that.

   If American Apparel really wants to portray submissive barely legal girls doing bastardized yoga poses in unhealthy alignment – i guess that’s their perogitive. It creates controversy which creates profit. My estimation of AA remains somewhere between trying-to-hard and unimpressed.
2. Danny D Economist says:

   September 4, 2009 at 9:45 pm

   Great post worth blogging about… you are right, we have to protect our little ones.

   Are we that different from Taiwan that stopped the nurses from campaigning for their market position while naked?

   http://www.shoutle.com/dov-charney-taiwan-nurses-azoogleads-doubleclick.html
3. Jemmah2 says:

   December 22, 2009 at 7:33 am

   I practice Yoga at home mainly for the purpose of having a relax mind and body. Stress is really high on our workplace and yoga helps me relax.
   .

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