<p>Exactly, razorsharp. Marketing, Richard Branson-style is what is going on here. Anything to create the maximum amount of noise per minimum $$ invested. It looks like he succeeded.</p>
<p>cosmicfish, do you truly believe that women who get raped were “asking for it” because they were wearing something that provoked the rapists?!</p>
<p>My daughters are a size 2 and a size 4. They never wore A&F.</p>
<p>My girls don’t like it when people in fashion do this skinny thing. We are naturally fast metabolism genes, but they have seen friends nearly starve themselves to death, and it’s not pretty. It’s not fashion.</p>
<p>Oddly, my H likes their clothes for himself for Saturday or Sunday wear. He does, however, also wear a shirt. ;)</p>
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<p>Not likely anytime soon. Their net income is up about 65% YOY [Income Statements from Yahoo Finance]. Their stock looks like it’s ready to break out. You may not like how a company markets or makes money but these companies usually have sharp marketing folks that know that they can make money when they push certain levers.</p>
<p>Their marketcap is around $4B.</p>
<p>I’m probably not in their target demographic. I could probably fit into their clothes but my pricing tastes are more along the lines of WalMart and TJMaxx. BTW, you can buy A&F products at TJMaxx stores at prices that are probably 1/3rd of what they ask for in the A&F stores.</p>
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<p>I don’t think this is what cosmicfish was suggesting. The clothes aren’t actually that slutty compared to Wet Seal or Tiger Lily or even some Forever 21. What I think they are going for is a WASP-y, east coast fratty bro culture (which Hollister also does with a west coast slant). Sort of like a younger version of Ralph Lauren when it first came out in the 80s.</p>
<p>When the kids were younger I refused to shop there because of their notorious sexual ad campaigns (Christmas catalog in brown paper wrapper? really?) D sometimes buys things there, but only from the sale rack. Despite the prices, the clothes tend to be flimsy and don’t necessarily hold up well. I can never spend much time in the A/F or Hollister stores due to the loud music and overwhelming perfume/cologne.</p>
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<p>We don’t have it where I live, but I remember 5-7-9 from when I was a teenager. You are right to call it 0-3-5 now. Thanks to vanity sizing, what used to be a 5 is now a 0.</p>
<p>Is A&F doing anything dramatically different from what already occurs in the fashion industry? Most, if not all, supermodels are young, beautiful, and skinny. I have heard a lot of discussion in the past that supermodels are too skinny but the reality is most young women would love to look like skinny supermodels.</p>
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<p>Um, don’t know if you saw this photo, but it seems VERY obvious this guy has had some really bad plastic surgery. :eek:</p>
<p><a href=“http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/michael-jeffries-has-a-rulebook-for-aircraft-standards__oPt.jpg[/url]”>http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/michael-jeffries-has-a-rulebook-for-aircraft-standards__oPt.jpg</a></p>
<p>" Every time I walk past I feel myself moving to the opposite side of the mall, because something about that place just screams “DATE RAPE”."</p>
<p>Sally, the place sells clothing. Why on earth does clothing make him think about “date rape”?</p>
<p>I think they were referring to the males attracted to the store, not the females.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, I’ve seen worse.</p>
<p>“I think they were referring to the males attracted to the store, not the females.”</p>
<p>It does not matter how it is being spinned - the poster was implying that clothes cause date rape. I’m disappointed that someone who claims to be so progressive and non-judgemental (see his posts about tattoos) thinks this way.</p>
<p>As far as picture of the CEO goes… I have not had any plastic surgeries, not even a single Botox shot in my entire life, but when Google video chat freezes while I’m talking to my D, my face sometimes looks like I’m Joan Rivers. :)</p>
<p>I’m not trying to defend the CEO’s actions. But he is a businessman, and that’s what some of them do. He is walking a thin line (no pun intended), because such ad campaigns can backfire.</p>
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<p>You need to use the premium version of Google Video Chat where it fixes the video stream so that you look like a teenager.</p>
<p>If it can also turn my fuzzy robe and “just rolled out of bed” hair into designer dress and couture hairdo respectively, then I will pay! 
Here you go, a business idea! :)</p>
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This. No, I do not believe that women who get raped were “asking for it”. I think that most of the guys I know who shop at these stores are same type of guys who later show up in court reports for battery and sexual assault.</p>
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No, I am not implying that clothes cause date rape. I am saying that the stores are designed to attract a certain type of males, and that in my experience… well, you get the point.</p>
<p>To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what clothing A&F sells to women. I have limited knowledge of their mens line, most of my experience starts and ends at the entrance to the stores and the people walking in and out.</p>
<p>Well, there’s always the old-school approach:</p>
<p>[Jane</a> Jetson – Morning Mask - YouTube](<a href=“Jane Jetson -- Morning Mask - YouTube”>Jane Jetson -- Morning Mask - YouTube)</p>
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<p>I always thought that these stores were trying to attract females.</p>
<p>I don’t think cosmic is at all implying that clothes “cause” date rape. The only thing that causes date rape is the rapist. </p>
<p>However, I do think that the type of hyper-sexualized and submissive and always sexually ready female culture that places like A&F push perpetuates the rape culture in the US.</p>
<p>“No, I am not implying that clothes cause date rape. I am saying that the stores are designed to attract a certain type of males, and that in my experience… well, you get the point.”</p>
<p>Sorry, I do not get the point. It is a clothing store - it has nothing to do with date rape.</p>
<p>" I think that most of the guys I know who shop at these stores are same type of guys who later show up in court reports for battery and sexual assault."</p>
<p>You think? Very convenient. Do you have data to back up this statement?</p>
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It seems like all the ads I see feature men with open shirts - I thought that meant they were selling men’s clothing sans buttons, but you might be right.</p>
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It is a clothing store masquerading as some type of spring-break club, that is specifically intended to sell to a particular segment of society that is well off and appearance-focused. The men I have personally known from this segment of society are associated with assaults reported and not. I do not know of such an association with those who shop at (for example) Sears, or Victoria’s Secret, or Lane Bryant, or most other stores. The men I know who wear this label are similar to the cast of “The Jersey Shore”, men that I think the world would be much better without.</p>
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I have personal experience only. If I had data, I would have said “I know that most of the guys…”</p>
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