From wcbstv.com:
A viewer email to wcbstv.com brought us to one of the new “city sights” on the Lower East Side. An American Apparel billboard shows a topless woman in a provocative pose.
“I guess sex sells,” resident Peter Malade said.
It stands right above Joe Dvir’s Sugar cafe on Houston.
“I have two daughters and there’s no way I can explain to them what the meaning of this sign is because it’s really going over the line,” Dvir said.
Some just can’t bear to look at it.
“It’s just too provocative,” Krystyna Kapturowska said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for any neighborhood.”
Others want nothing more than to ogle the ad.
“There’s always going to be people that doesn’t like something so …,” said Kenny Johnson, who added he liked the ad.
A woman who lives in this neighborhood, contacted wcbstv.com to tell us she’s sent a petition to American Apparel with dozens of resident’s signatures asking them to take the billboard down. She tells us the company only told her they’d look into it.
Marketing expert Robert Passikoff says he believes gratuitous ads are a dying trend.
“The consumer has the power,” Passikoff said. “Enough letters written to a corporation regarding any kind of a campaign and you’ll see a campaign dropped entirely.”
American Apparel did not respond to our requests for comment.
-Ralph Michael Stein
