A + F makes the political scene
 
Abercrombie + Fitch is releasing a new catalog that will feature male nudity and it's photographed by Bruce Weber!  Good news?  Not quite--- A + F is releasing this version of the catalog only in Europe. Talk about injustice. Serves the USA right. Remember how conservative groups put up a big stink and the company has to cease publication on its provocative catalogs? And they wonder why they've had declining sales. Not that the company isn't trying--they've placed shirtless studs at the doors of A + F stores across the country. And they've even gotten inadvertent product placement----three guys were in the background of a Barack Obama speech in Indiana all wearing different A + F shirts! Turns out it wasn't some big plot either. One of the guys works at the local store and he and his buds always wear the stuff.

       
                                      

  But we digress. We have managed to snag a few pics from the overseas edition and again we have to ask, "what's the big deal?" Do conservative groups think this kind of nudity is going to make young people crazy with lust any more than they already are? It's not as if their repressive tactics work. Since Bush and company have trumpeted "abstinence only" education and clamped down on easy targets such as the A + F catalog, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies are on the rise. Seems to our way of thinking that the more you repress something the more attractive it is. 

 We're not marketing geniuses but it would make sense for A + F to allow us in the USA order the catalog at the website. Besides there were always some great articles and interviews in the book that went to their target audience --women & gay men. They'd sell a ton and more than likely increase their sales of merchandise. Anyone out there in marketing & research at A + F or know someone who is? Pass the word. Just a thought.