The new ad campaign by Mark Ecko "Hot Girls Make Great Clothes," left me nearly speechless when I saw it this afternoon. I am appalled that Ecko Unltd has the nerve not only to exploit and objectify women by putting only traditionally "beautiful" and skinny women in bikinis in their "factory," but that they would dare to mock the real women and girls who actually DO work in sweatshops around the world under nearly unbearable conditions. I find it utterly disgusting that this clothing company has gone one step further than ignoring the problem of sweatshop labor, they are now pretending that the people making their clothes are happy, gorgeous, scantily-clad bikini babes. It's almost impressive the amount of offensive material they were able to squeeze into one ad.
Here's how the blog "Don't Do That" (http://harrietsdaughter.wordpress.com/)put it:
"The website is filled with images (photo and video) of barely dressed women 'manufacturing' Ecko brand clothing. Yes, this campaign objectifies women and uses sex to sell clothes. What else is new? More sickening than that is the 'wink wink nudge nudge' reference to places where really hot women and children work - sweatshops. Real women and real girls labor for meager, unsustainable wages in terrible conditions so that we can purchase and wear the latest hot styles.
A few facts about sweatshops:
Women make up to 90 percent of sweatshop labor. The poor working conditions they experience include being subject to sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape. Sweatshops violate the most basic labor laws including child labor, minimum wage, overtime and fire safety laws. Working conditions also include no benefits, non-payment of wages, forced overtime, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, corporal punishment, and illegal firings.
Sweatshops flourish where there are pools of exploitable workers in desperate conditions. The poorer the country, the more exploitable the people are. However, sweatshops are not only found in 'other' countries; they are right here in the U.S. - often the workers are recent and/or undocumented workers - again, people who are very vulnerable.
Workers who don't know their rights or who have no good choices are at the mercy of the managers of these shops and the corporations who own them. For instance, pregnant women are fired instead of being given any type of leave. Women who are of childbearing age may be forced to take birth control or abort their pregnancies."
I had to mention this at Feministing because it really just makes me sad. Those of us who are fighting to protect the rights of women who are forced to live and work in situations like this and to educate the public about it know how far there is to go, and ads like this just add insult to grievous injury.
Here is a link to view a snippet of the ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0h3OuGvLbU
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Hot girls in bikinis DON'T make your clothes!.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/8902
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
Yeah, but don't you realize, only skinny hot chicks with great hair and long slim legs and perfect teeth and three-molecule noses and perky tits MATTER. Until they're twenty-five. After that they vanish, like the rest of the female population of the planet.
And you should see Ecko's homepage: http://www.eckomfg.com/?c=53&i=c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b . Did you know that if a woman sues for workplace discrimination, it's only because she's ugly and bitter and jealous that she wasn't HOT enough to work for Ecko?
And it's only right and proper ( http://www.eckomfg.com/?c=53&i=1679091c5a880faf6fb5e6087eb1b2dc ) for a woman to be sexually available to her male employers if she wants to keep her job.
So repulsive, disgusting, and gross. I fucking hate people.
This is terrible. :(
Ecko is horrible!
I'm noticing a trend in the denim industry... And I'm glad I'm not the only one who is nauseated (and pissed off!) about this.