It’s back-to-school time in the marketing world, and the fall A&F Quarterly
has people up in arms – again. As in previous issues, Abercrombie & Fitch’s
part magazine, part catalog aimed at 18- to 22-year-olds is being compared to
soft porn.

Among the tamest of the provocative images in the “magalog” is a spread
depicting nude models skinny-dipping. It’s one of several suggestive pictorials
by fashion super-photographer Bruce Weber. The content seems to get more risque
with each edition, as if on a dare.

This 4-year-old publication represents an acute image shift for the once-conservative
New York clothier that opened in 1892 as outfitter to the outdoorsman. Back then,
presidents and movie stars sported the upscale retailer’s line.

Even though the Quarterly is intended for college-age readers, and customers must
show proof they’re over 18 to purchase it, critics say copies are landing
in the hands of middle- and high-school kids who also wear the store’s label.
The publication has raised an outcry from concerned parents, including calls for
boycotts, and the ensuing media coverage and First Amendment discussions have
fanned the flames of the debate, making the publication so interesting it sold
out.

Maybe it’s time for less fanning and more marketing perspective for the consumer.

Negative publicity may be promoting rather than hindering Quarterly sales, says
Laura Moran, director of Prophet, a San Francisco firm specializing in brand-driven
growth.

“Many young consumers aspire to be like their older counterparts – the
people in the ads and the people working in the stores,” she says. “That
puts A&F in a prime position to grab a substantial portion of the Generation Y consumer
dollar.”

Less than half of the Quarterly involves merchandise for sale, but A&F spokesman
Hampton Carney says that is the point.

“It’s almost incidental that clothing is offered. It’s more of
a magazine and it’s treated that way in the planning and theming,” he
says. “It’s meant to be entertainment.”

How does Abercrombie & Fitch drastically change direction?

With a bit of a gamble, brand and marketing experts say. Firms conduct brand analysis
to come up with a targeted customer personality. And when it’s the opposite
of a 40-year-old three-piece-suit-wearing white male, the resulting strategy can
turn the advertisement world inside out and call the desired attention to the
goods. On the other hand, the approach could alienate the customers – or
parents of the customer they’re trying to reach.

Consider the Calvin Klein Obsession/CK Jeans ad campaigns of the ‘90s. They
received sharp criticism that they exploited children. Both were suggestive and
one featured models that looked the part of underage adolescents showing off their
undies. Parents and child advocacy groups called the material kiddy porn, brand
expert Doug McIntyre says.

Abercrombie & Fitch has been pushing the envelope since the arrival of the
first relatively tame Quarterly issue, says McIntyre, a founding partner for Zero
Base Advertising, based in Columbus, Ohio, near Abercrombie & Fitch’s
home turf in Reynoldsburg. Zero Base is a major advertising firm that specializes
in branding products. It does not handle A&F’s advertising.

The back-to-school issue is presented with the backdrop of a fictitious A&F university campus where readers see a scene of nude girls frolicking in a fountain accompanied
by an article referencing Katharine Hepburn’s true tales of skinny-dipping
at Bryn Mawr College. There’s a nude guy in art class among clothed classmates,
a reference to UC Berkeley’s Naked Guy, the real-life student who attended
all his classes in the buff. Are we fanning again?

Outrage about the magazine has come from all corners: Mothers Against Drunk Driving
for its portrayals of underage drinking, the Catholic League for the editorial
content criticizing the Catholic faith, NOW and other women’s group accusing
exploitation of women, and from politicians and parents accusing recklessness
toward children. They want the magazine to either clean up its act or cease publishing.

Planetfeedback.com, an online resource for consumer input, recently conducted
an online, unscientific study of the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog and heard
from a wide demographic of parents and teens. “The survey found that more
than 57 percent of respondents said the A&F catalog went too far with its
graphic nature, while 42 percent thought it was fine,” says marketing director
Ric Sweeney.

The study’s results didn’t surprise A&F spokesman Carney. “Our
customers let us know how they feel. We get hundreds of letters and comments monthly,
and we value all of them. We also get letters from customers who send in their
picture asking if they can model for the book.”

Abercrombie & Fitch also distributes a traditional catalog the same time the
Quarterly is published. That puts the unique work in perspective, Carney adds.

The marketing approach comes from A&F’s chief executive Mike Jeffries,
who launched the Quarterly just before the company’s initial public offering
in 1998, Carney says.

“I don’t see anything in the catalog that a college kid would find shocking.
If you’re out of the college culture, chances are you won’t get the
subtle references.” While the company takes great measures to keep the $6
magalog under plastic wrap, card the book’s in-store buyers and require that
subscribers offer driver’s licenses as proof of age, parents complain that’s
no guarantee that young teens and preteens won’t get copies .

“But, who are we kidding?” McIntyre asks. “The (Quarterly’s)
targeted age already has seen plenty. This group has seen the Playboys of the
world at a much younger age. I am much more offended by PG-13 films that feature
violence and murder, unnatural acts, than a magazine that shows sex and nudity,
natural acts.”

With the stopgaps, A&F has dealt straight-on with parent concerns, Carney
says, and he urges them to look at the store’s record and view the catalog
in context.

“We take more responsibility for the publication than your typical record
store that sells CDs with explicit language to underage kids,” he says.
“We respect all our customers and we take their complaints seriously.
But we have an Abercrombie store for the younger kids. This is no different
than the Disney and Miramax labels.”

Disney also has taken hits for its expansion into the PG-13 and R-rated film world.
There are pitfalls from these kinds of marketing moves for any company, Moran
explains. “The company is taking a risk in alienating the parents of its
target group with the racy ads. I question where can the retailer go from here?
How can the chain continue to be provocative without going over the edge?”

A&F doesn’t appear to have been directly hit by the controversy. “You
can’t really correlate sales with the company’s catalog,” Carney
says.

The numbers for the last decade can’t be disputed, McIntyre says. “The
company has grown 10-fold since the early ‘90s. In 1992, they made $85 million,
compared to $815 million in 1998. Whether the growth is through the clothing line
or other means, it’s hard to say.

“It’s a personal choice. You’re not going to see the 18-year-old
picketing the company. But the worried mom of a younger child is going to have
a different view.”

Bold branding can work for companies, he says. Calvin Klein jeans and Obsession
still enjoy brisk business.

So far, the A&F strategy has accomplished some important things: It’s
getting attention, McIntyre says. “From that standpoint, it’s been successful.

“One thing marketers like is people talking about their product.”

E-mail the author: Jean Nash Johnson Knight-Ridder Newspapers