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Vandals attacked a window display that featured pro-LGBT T-shirts at the Silver Spring American Apparel store on Monday morning, The Sexist reports, shattering a window in the process. The Georgetown location of American Apparel also received a telephone threat later that day about their similar window display.
The T-shirts in the window bore the logo of the company's "Legalize Gay" campaign, which is designed to raise awareness about opposition to California's Proposition 8.
The Silver Spring store has since removed its front window display.
American Apparel has issued a statement in response to the attack and threats. "We don't find this kind of thing funny and we definitely don't find it intimidating," reads the statement in part. The company also offered to send "Legalize Gay" T-shirts to any group in Washington D.C. that is fighting for gay rights.
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If they're not intimidated, why did they remove the front window display?
Also, why is that model wearing pants?
DIng!
Dong!
Is there any way to vandalize the ads on DCist?
What's wrong with women in mens' shirts & undies?
Oh right - work n' crap.
At this point, some women in my office building are showing off so much cleavage to the point that the American Apparel ads are almost quaint.
You work at Hooters?
Just jam your scissors right through the middle of your monitor. That'll show e'm.
I took me a sharpie and rote "no kweers" on my computor screen right over the picter, it looks like it done worked.
man, i'm not one for conspiracy theories, but doesn't this seem like an easy way to get a free ad for your company up on dcist?
Just be glad that American Apparel decided to cancel their Mapplethorpe Line of designer buttwhips.
And I'm still waiting for a refund on my pre-sale deposit.
I'm still waiting to emotionally recover from opening my gay arty uncle's Mapplethorpe Book and seeing the butt whip photo when I was 10.
And I think you can get that whip at Urban Outfitters. It even has "Juicy" embossed on the handle.
Those cheapo Made-in-Taiwan whips always break at the least opportune moment. You end up having to get the broken pieces out using fireplace tools and a LOT of Astroglide.
Commercial glass replacement isn't cheap. Dunno how it compares to -ist ad rates, though.
Weirdly, I was in this store once when one of it's windows was smashed. Staff had just kicked some rowdy youngsters out and accused them of attempted shoplifting. They came back with brick.
The all new Downtown Silver Spring. Like Columbia Heights, but with 100% more Romano's Macaroni Grill!
Yeah, but 100% less Ruby Tuesday.
A J-School 101 review for DCist.com...
'Act Independently'
Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.
Journalists should:
—Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
— Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
— Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
— Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
(Ethics rules from the Society of Professional Journalists)
Right you are. More Nudes, Less News.
Since when does a blog count as "journalism?" That's like calling Fox News "fair and balanced" or Marion Barry a human.
You gotta be kidding me, right? You are familiar with the editorial/advertiser firewall? My job is to report local news. My publishers in New York sell the ads -- the editorial staff at DCist doesn't have anything to do with them - in fact, we make a point of ignoring them. Do you ever read a story in the Washington Post that says "full disclosure: the subject of this story is an advertiser"? No, you don't, because it's totally unnecessary. The editorial content of a publication should report stories as they see fit, regardless of who is advertising. That's the whole point. This story is obviously newsworthy. There's literally no controversy here.
And by the way, I have been forwarding complaints about the relative raciness of the American Apparel ads to my publisher. That's really all I can do. Like I said, I am not told in advance who is advertising with us and don't have anything to do with ad sales for DCist.com or any other Gothamist-owned web site.
Give us a break, Sommer! You expect us to believe that you PAID for all those American Apparel shirts I see you dancing around in with no pants on? And by the way, you should probably get that mole on the small of your back checked out. I have the number of a great dermatologist. He has a basement office in Forest Haven in Laurel.
"And by the way, I have been forwarding complaints about the relative raciness of the American Apparel ads to my publisher."
...so mad at you right now, Sommer. Why do you hate America?? :)
If anything, the ads aren't risqué enough. AA really needs to re-think their plan to cancel the Mapplethorpe Line of designer buttwhips. Or at least dress their models like Christ and suspend them in giant jars filled with yellow liquid.
While I don't think there's a conflict here, I must object to your implication that the Washington Post is model of good journalistic ethics. Between their pay-for-access salons and Howie Kurtz's lucrative contract with CNN, one of the prime institutions he's supposed to criticize, the Post is awash in ethical lapses.
Dear Publisher: Please disregard Sommer's complaints RE raciness of ads. Some of us like gratuitous ass pics. To be fair though- there could be a little more gender balance... RE the ass pics I mean.
I heart me DCist, but in fairness...
1. It doesn't make sense to just assume that the blog follows the same journalism standards as traditional media outlets (not that said professional outlets really have been following the ethical standards themselves).
2. The bizarre *ist styleguide that indulges constantly in "we" -- despite the articles not being written by any collective borg hive -- kind of bites you here. Every week you run an article starting, "We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on DCist." So, this is a wholly different "we" than readers encounter on the rest of the blog? You can see how that hardly gives the perception of a firewall.
Really, did you just submit this comment to a blog? Whoa. You are both wrong, and in need of a xanax.
When it starts tagging entries as 'News'
Since this seems to be the place to be to complain about the AA ads, this isn't really the end of the world, but in last weeks Tian Mao thanks the advertisers posty thingy, he suggested people check out the 8 American Apparel stores in D.C.
What the hell was he talking about? I could count only 2 in D.C. and 4 in the entire metropolitan area. Even if you expanded the definition of "in" D.C. to include Richmond, I could only come up with 7. Richmond?! What the holy heck? That's a hundred miles away. You know what my favorite neighborhood in New York is? Philadelphia.
it's obvious that somebody was upset they can no longer view their favorite webiste, DCist, at work due to the racy advertisements and took out their aggression out on the closets AA store they knew of.
And totally made it with a mannequin wearing a "Legalize Gay" T-shirt.
Shirt needs a couple edits: Legalize Profiteering of Gay Causes
The guy who runs American Apparel is a perv.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/17/local/me-charney17
Shirt needs a couple edits: Legalize Profiteering of Gay Causes
FTW.
Damn shame about the vandalism, but has anyone considered the possibility that rather than being homophobes, the vandals were just infuriated by the AA campaign's ridiculous and truncated slogan?
so much about AA advertising is ridiculous, but you don't see its other campaigns being bashed in. If we provide corporations with the same rights as individuals, which we do in this country, this would constitute a hate crime.
nate: i just posted this on citypaper site:
Maybe a grammarian vandalized the shop, since one cannot "verb" an "adjective," no matter how cute and "hip" it may seem.
nate: i just posted this on citypaper site:
Maybe a grammarian vandalized the shop, since one cannot "verb" an "adjective," no matter how cute and "hip" it may seem.
The predictable bitchin' about the AA ads proves that it's a total winner of a campaign, and the agency will win every trade award in the universe for pushing brand awareness.
It's also pretty fascinating for us armchair sociologists that wonder how the New Roman Empire got so fuggin' sensitive.
As a tall man, I find the skyscraper ad very helpful because it illustrates to me that the so-called "men's shirts" at AA aren't even long enough to reach my waist, much less stay tucked in. I half expect AA to come out with a through-the-looking-glass version of the ad, though, with some scrawny hipster guy in the same outfit (including the lilac panties). Equal opportunity, you know.
Just saw ABC 7 on M Street with one of the t-shirts doing "man on the street" interviews on the subject.
I'd hit that
Yikes...that pic is freakier than the Real World overeager dude.
Too late. She made me have to fuck her ass up in the middle of a Las Vegas Casino. With my shoes off. We were like fuckin’ Tina and Ike Turner.
gotta feel for the chicks in the ads. at least they arent fug.
OMG they have a kids line and baby clothes. I spare no love to AA and agree that gothamist might be missing the mark for DCist advertising. But whatever - Adblocker rox. More effective in the long run than a brick in the window.
I, for one, love the big hairy dong that is American Apparel. They've made child slave labor in America acceptable again for the first time in nearly a century.
my main concern about the AA ads besides being NSFW is that the models never get around to climbing out of the screen and come sit on my lap.
As for the vandalism... apparently no matter how much things change, Maryland is still Maryland...
We actually have not taken down the display in the window. It is still there and will continue to be there.
Hey everyone. Thanks for all your thoughtful comments about the American Apparel ads that are running on DCist. I can say that Sommer had nothing (and never does) to do with the ads that are running on the site. As she said, we handle all our advertising out of NYC and keep advertising and editorial separate.
As for the raciness of the ads, I've let the contacts at AA know of your concerns and I think they've already swapped out the skin-heavy ad in question. We certainly don't want anyone getting in trouble for reading the site because of the ads that are running.
If you have any questions about our policies regarding advertising and editorial, feel free to send me an email (tien (at) gothamist dot com) and I'll do my best to address any questions you may have.
- tien
actually, tien, we don't give a fat-rat's-ass-hanging-just-outside-the-shot-of-that-chair-sitting-next-to-the-dumpster if sommer thinks their too racy. thanks for replacing the skin-heavy ad with the legalize gay t-shirt one...not...at all
If anyone out there wants to know what other weird things are happening in Silver Spring, Maryland...Just up the road from where the American Apparel store was vandalized at the Crown Plaza on 8777 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring in the 2009 Master/Slave Conference being held on September 4th through the 7th 2009. There is a link to the Master/Slave website below as well as a link to the hotel and a few of their sponsors. It is being billed as THE largest gathering of "Masters" and "Slaves." They have erotica lectures, Master/Slave "autions" for "use" by the highest bidder, and other unmentionables. Don't click on any of the sponsor links shown on the website if you have a weak stomach.
I am appalled that the Crowne Plaza would allow unsuspecting families to stay at their establishment unaware that an S&M conference is happening at the same time. I cannot imagine that anyone would knowingly want their children in the same hotel with this going on. I cannot believe that someone would bring this kind of deviant behavior to a beautiful, family friendly community.
http://www.masterslaveconference.org/
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/cp/1/en/cwshome/DPRD-7QMNYV/WASSS
http://mastertaino.com/
http://mast-baltimore.org/
http://torvea.com/
http://foxknockerfurniture.com/