A Bengali American woman and American Apparel employee bared her breasts in an ad to help the company make a statement against sweat shop overseas, reports the NY Daily News.
The words Made in Bangladesh appear across her chest.
American Apparel hopes the ad will spotlight it’s labor practices.
It says 23 American workers made the jeans worn by its employee. The clothing manufacturer said it paid its workers 50 times the wages of those in Bangladesh outsourced by its competitors.
The employee is identified only as Maks. She has worked as a merchandiser for American Apparel since 2010.
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She immigrated with her parents from Bangladesh when she was 4.
“Maks doesn’t feel the need to identify herself as an American or a Bengali and is not content to fit her life into anyone else’s conventional narrative,” the company writes. “That’s what makes her essential to the mosaic that is Los Angeles, and unequivocally, a distinct figure in the ever-expanding American Apparel family.”
American Apparel’s CEO Dov Charney has been outspoken about sweatshops.
You can read some of his comments in the NY Daily News.
What do you think of the ad. Is it an exploitation of an employee or an important message? Are you willing to pay more for clothes so workers can be paid a fair wage?
