Abercrombie & Fitch's "Jersey Shore" Situation

Today's publicity stunt involving Abercrombie and Fitch and MTV's Jersey Shore series generated the attention both firms most devoutly desired.

However, it raised issues that ironically get to the malignant heart of both brands' success. According to The New York Times article on the manufactured flap, A&F offered to pay MTV so that Jersey Shore's actors would not be shown wearing its clothing. As A&F noted in a statement, "This association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans."

If the fans are "distressed," then they have way too much time on their hands. However, A&F makes it clear the issue is entirely about social class. Jersey Shore is popular because it's a caricature of perceived lower class stupidity and foolishness. In the bad old days, condescending, demeaning shows used African-American caricatures as entertainment vehicles. That faded away in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement. However, the mockery of lower classes has returned more or less in tandem with the recent, increased division of America into a "have" or "have not" society. Jersey Shore has successfully tapped into this unsavory zeitgeist, the same one that produces Abercrombie and Ken's "aspirational" branding.

Jersey Shore has something else in common with the old minstrel shows. Its principal character, Snooki, is "swarthy." She is as distant from the look of, say, Pippa Middleton or any number of pouty Russian blonde supermodels, as one can be. Snooki doesn't portray a very bright woman. She celebrates her grotesque cheapness, which enables an audience to indulge in feelings of class superiority. Snooki's dark complexion and moronic character are part of the "lower class" package, a backdoor form of racism that has morphed into classism.

Depressingly, American classism extends across ethnic lines, age, sexual preferences, and gender. It's now routine for American discourse to coalesce around assumed class structures. NPR, for example, has implied its audience's level of sophistication is essentially a matter of class. "Aspirational" fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie and Fitch are entirely about social striving. Sex and the City was basically a valentine to decidedly unswarthy women whose greatest goal in life was to enjoy the bourgeois life of America's "aspirational" capital, Manhattan South of 96th Street.

A different Abercrombie and Fitch message was heard on Wall Street last week, when A&F announced quarterly earnings. As financial journalists often say, "analysts were disappointed," and A&F's shares promptly fell 8 percent. If that corporate performance continues in the same way, Abercrombie and Fitch may end up worn by the "wrong" people, seen in the "wrong" places, and perceived the "wrong" way. A&F will be on the wrong side of the social tracks, and they won't get Snooki and The Situation to wear their clothes. Even if Abercrombie and Fitch paid them.

The photo shows Jersey Shore cast members; the shrimpy woman is Snooki.