Abercrombie & Fitch has faced controversy over the last decade for questionable labor practices, racially insensitive t-shirts sexualizing young girls, and nude models in their publications. Some examples of offensive t-shirts included slogans like "Wong Brothers Laundry Service" and messages sexualizing female students. They also sold revealing underwear and push-up bras aimed at pre-teen girls. Spirit Airlines is known for tasteless and sex joke-laden advertising campaigns exploiting scandals and disasters to promote cheap flights. Examples included ads around the Anthony Weiner scandal and BP oil spill. Spencer's Gifts sells vulgar t-shirts including some with extremely sexist or derogatory messages. PETA's shocking advertising campaigns

1. 6. Abercrombie and Fitch
Abercrombie has been making headlines for its questionable
labor practices, racially insensitive tee-shirts, sexualization of
little girls, and scintillating publication A&F Quarterly (which had
mostly naked, young looking models) for the last decade.

2. One of A&F's most famous gaffe was selling a
tee-shirt with the slogan "Wong Brothers
Laundry Service – Two Wongs Can Make It
White" in 2002.

3. Other bad-idea tee shirts include past slogans
on girls' tees that read "Available for parties"
and "Who needs brains when you have these"
in 2005 and "Female students wanted for
sexual research" in 2009.

4. A&F also has a history of selling sexualized
lingerie in pre-teen sizes. In 2002 it pulled
underwear with phrases like "Eye Candy" and
"Wink Wink." In 2011 it was criticized for
selling push-up bras to 8-14 year olds.

5. Speaking of push-ups, an A&F email was
leaked to the press that stated: "Now every
time we make a mistake [...] we will do ten
push-ups. Squats for women. This will bring
about a great result: we will learn more from
our mistakes."

6. That's only slightly better of when A&F was
accused of discrimination against black and
Asian employees, forcing a worker with a
prosthetic to work in the stockroom, or firing
Muslims for wearing headscarves.

7. 5. Spirit Airlines
To advertise its cheap flights (with shockingly
expensive carry-on fees ), Spirit Airlines is
known for its cheap, sex-joke laden campaigns.
For example, the airline sent strippermobiles
down the streets of Vegas when advertising
flights to and from LAX. The strippermobiles
read, "I'll go both ways for $18."

8. Spirit is sure to exploit any big event or
scandal. Like the secret service / prostitution
ring.

9. At the height of the Anthony Weiner Twitter
scandal, Spirit launched this "Weiner Sale,"
alleging that it was "too HARD to resist."

10. But crass campaigns aren't limited to sex
scandals. In 2006, Spirit launched the "Hunt for
Hoffa" game, asking consumers to dig for
Jimmy Hoffa's body online.

11. And of course there was the tasteless BP oil
spill-themed promotion.

12. 4. Spencer's Gifts
The novelty shirt retailer is known for vulgar
shirts.
While almost nothing the shop sells is
surprising, immigrant phobic shirts (right) and
a line of extremely sexist and derogatory tees
have recently made headlines.

13. Earlier this month, the blogosphere exploded
over woman-hating shirts like this:

16. When the animal rights group isn’t throwing
blood on fur, it's coming out with shock-tactic
advertising campaigns.
A mild example is when PERA put huge
billboards outside of elementary schools in
November with cute pictures of
puppies, asking kids if they would eat their dog
for Thanksgiving.

17. In general, PETA uses nearly naked celebrities
to get its point across. This ad, likening Pamela
Anderson to cuts of meat, was banned in
Canada.

18. Critics often question if PETA exploits women
in its anti-animal exploitation campaigns.

19. Or why PETA chooses to fat-shame.

20. Even a positive message — that veggies
increase sexual stamina — was overshadowed
by its questionable campaign critiqued for
normalizing violence against women.
The ad showed bruised women in neck braces
tentatively coming home to their Vegan, sex-
crazed boyfriends.
They were suffering from "BWVAKTBOOM:
"Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the
Bottom out of Me."

21. PETA has also infamously compared killing
animals for meat to the Holocaust.

22. 2. Urban Outfitters
The clothing company has faced a
few controversies in the past. (See
next slide.)

23. Urban angered the Anti-Defamation League
for selling tee-shirts with Holocaust imagery.

24. And again when it sold tee-shirts in 2005 that
read, "New Mexico, Cleaner Than Regular
Mexico."

25. The Navajo Nation sued when Urban claimed
that it put authentic Navajo designs on
underwear and flasks.

26. And of course there was the time when the
retailer introduced a tee-shirt that came in
"Obama Black" in 2010.

27. Urban Outfitters is also one of several defendants in
a $28 million lawsuit for printing and selling tee-
shirts of then-15-year-old Hailey Clauson that were
"salacious" and "provocative."

28. 1. American Apparel
Was anyone really surprised to find out that
American Apparel CEO Dov Charney was being
sued by an employee for using homophobic
and racial slurs before shoving dirt in his face?
(Charney's lawyer says that this is “contrived
and untrue.”)

29. Charney has faced sexual harassment suits by
former employees. (He's also been accused of
hiring based on looks.)

30. American Apparel is known for having highly
sexualized, often naked models in its ads. But
it recently got in trouble for doing it with a
model who "appears to be under 16."

31. Which makes sense since the retailer sells tee-
shirts saying that "Teenagers do it better."

32. American Apparel also showed a lack of
common sense when it launched a Hurricane
Sandy-themed flash sale — for a storm that
killed more than one hundred and left
millions without power. "It wasn't that
serious," Charney said.