Is it just me...

... or does the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch give you the creeps, too? Don't get me wrong - from a business perspective I admire his penache. He's taken a slumped (that's putting it mildly) company that really hadn't done well since the Roosevelt era and turned it into something popular and profitable (worth $5 billion today and growing). It's the methods he's used that give me the heebie-jeebies.

An article about Mike Jeffries, A&F CEO, on Salon.com has me sufficiently weirded out that I'm not too eager to run off to the local mall and pick up A&F's latest. Not that I've been too eager at any point to do that. But after reading this article I'm decidedly steering clear of the stores, as opposed to my normal routine of steering clear simply because I'm not too keen on the product.

He has turned A&F into a young, sexy brand. He's opened 3 additional divisions. He's built a $131 million company headquarters... and stocked it full of young, attractive kid employees. Business-wise the man is some sort of genius. He's cultivated a cult-like corporate culture very much like Apple - and that's worked like a charm. But he's 61 years old and he dyes his hair blonde. He wears flip-flops every day. Not just flip-flops, he pairs them with the perfect pair of A&F ripped and faded jeans. He's worked his biceps up to action figure proportions. He says "dude" more than your average CA surfer. He's had more work done on his face than half of Boca - and that's saying something. I understand the desire to retain your youth, but this guy's penchant for defying convention makes me wonder about him.

I'm not a prude - not even close - and I certainly think that it's difficult to truly exploit a grown woman unless she wants you to... but a 13 year old wearing a shirt that says "Who Needs Brains When You Have These" makes me sad. Makes me sad that the shirt bearing that slogan was marketed to her (which it was - just ask Mike Jeffries) and sad that her parents let her out of the house wearing it. Hell, they probably even bought it for her.

I'm bothered by Jeffries' willingness to admit that ugly, unpopular kids shouldn't wear A&F clothes because that's not the kind of customer he wants. It's one thing for that to be the inter-company dialogue, but to broadcast it as your business philosophy smacks of arrogance and ick-factor. Ick.

Maybe it's because I'm a woman who was raised by a mother who really never let me feel like it was OK to demean myself. Maybe it's because, even with my sarcastic sense of humor, I think that pandering to the stereotypical over-testosteroned caricatures of teenagers is a bad idea. Maybe it's because I make clothes, and I want women of all sizes to wear them and enjoy them and feel good in them. Maybe it's because I felt like one of the dorky, unpopular kids in high school and I know I wouldn't have fit in to A&F's target demographic. Maybe it's because I used to be a good deal chubbier and I know what it feels like to avoid a store that you know doesn't carry your size. But Abercrombie & Fitch has taken sleaze to a new level. Sell funny shirts, market sex because it really does sell, promote an all-American brand image. But leave the sleaze out of it and for goodness' sake - put a brown-ish face or two in that damn catalog.