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| September 2nd, 2009 by Joshua Weinberger |  |
So, really now:
I know American Apparel founder Dov Charney’s in no position to get pissed (let alone struggle to locate the moral high ground) over an apparel company’s ad campaign — just ask Woody Allen — but I think he might actually be justified if he’s got his skimpy knickers in a twist over the style and format of Gap Inc.’s new “Born to Fit” campaign:
Gap: Born to Fit ad campaign
Now compare that to a typical American Apparel ad:
American Apparel catalog ad
American Apparel: A typical ad
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Now, I know Helvetica is the world’s workhorse when it comes to typefaces, but am I really the only one who thinks this is over the line?
[More after the jump...]
Especially when you consider Gap’s intent, as it contends in this recent New York Times piece on the campaign, is to try to stand out from the competition:
“We need to communicate to people why they should put Gap on their list,” she added. The campaign is meant to achieve that goal with “probably the most fully integrated marketing plan we’ve done in many years.”
A message she hopes the campaign delivers is that “Gap stands the test of time,” Ms. Ross said, “as opposed to fast fashion” — a reference to rival retailers like H&M and Zara, which specialize in trends in lower-price apparel.
Funny, that.
American Apparel specializes in precisely the kind of “lower-price apparel” Gap is trying to elevate itself above — I mean, the AA Web site even sells something it actually calls “Bag-O-Scraps” for $8 — and yet Gap chooses to echo AA’s marketing designs almost to the letter.
Literally.
(By the way, in the interest of full disclosure — though I can’t imagine anyone would really care — I should point out that one of my college classmates is featured in the video portion of Gap’s multimedia armada: Alessandro Nivola, in “Born to Take Risks.” [Facebook video] )
Recent American Apparel ad
(Also, before anyone feels the need to point this out, I do know that American Apparel has recently started using a serif typeface in some of its ads — like the one at right. But the company’s logo, its Web site, and the bulk of its marketing still revolves around Helvetica.)
Other Web sources:
Gap Inc. press release announcing launch of the “Born To Fit” campaign
American Apparel’s own collection of its ads (some of them NSFW) [AmericanApparel.net]
An independent blogpost of 77 American Apparel ads (some of them NSFW) [TheWorld'sBestEver.com]
Gap’s Facebook page – which, by the way, is what the campaign-specific http://borntofit.com URL currently forward you to. I don’t know what happens if you’re not a Facebook user.
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