Abercrombie & Fitch sings a new tune

Abercrombie & Fitch has long been known for being a brand for the slim and slender. So much so that the company’s former CEO was so critical of heavier women that the brand didn’t design clothes in a size XL or larger. To make this sad reality even worse, the quotes implicating Mike Jeffries were far more harrowing than the general criticism about the brand’s discrimination.

“He doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people,” Robin Lewis of The New Rules Of Retail said. “He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids.’”

These comments come across as disgusting and childish, and by all means they are. So what changed, where Abercrombie & Fitch is now pandering to the audience they once so openly isolated?

A compelling article from AdWeek highlighted that after over a century, A&F is finally trying a new marketing approach. The lead of the article goes as follows:

“This year, Abercrombie & Fitch is taking another step to ensure it’s no longer the exclusive outfitter for the thin, popular girls and bronzed, muscular jocks that ruled your high school in the early aughts.”’

‘Face Your Fierce,’ the campaign highlighted in the article, is specifically targeted towards Abercrombie & Fitch’s new fragrance. The campaign features highlights plus-size and LGBTQ+ models that were previously ignored by the brand, and that has drawn mixed responses by the public.

On my end, I can’t help but think that it’s too little too late for Abercrombie & Fitch. My journey with A&F has dated back over a decade, back to when I used to go into the store and immediately be inundated with the pungent scents of their signature fragrances as you perused the aisles. Even then, shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch had a certain allure. And now, all of these years later, the brand is trying to reverse the exclusivity that it so infamously built its brand upon.

However, I can’t help but notice that the CTA to ‘Face Your Fierce,’ while could be perceived as unabashedly empowering — almost seems demeaning giving the brand’s history. Embracing your body at its current and/or most comfortable size shouldn’t be revolutionary — it should be natural.