“Sex sells” has been used for years as an excuse to exploit and humiliate women through advertising. It is seen everywhere: television, movies, magazines, billboards, literally any place where you can place an advertisement. One company that specializes in advertisements featuring sexualizing women to sell their clothes is American Apparel. For years they have created degrading ads that make the average person believe they have to look like these images to feel good about themselves. Advertisements like these have a negative effect on society and especially women, but American Apparel has taken things to a whole new level of exploitation. In Jean Kilbourne's documentary "Killing Us Softly 4", she provides numerous detailed examples of advertisers making women a sexual object which leads society to dehumanize the female species. On top of this, they are finding younger, thinner women to use, even photographing their models with unrealistic body shapes; distorting the average woman's vision of what she should look like. The founder and CEO of American Apparel, Dov Charney, himself said that they worked hard to acquire the provocative image they have today and that they intentionally created advertisements "imbued with youth and sex" (Chauduri). The company insists that they are simply "open about sexuality" and should not be persecuted for it (Chauduri). Although sex is more important and less taboo than it has ever been in society, there is a clear line between greater “openness” about sexuality and the abuse of the sexual side of men and women. By “openness about sexuality” Dov Charney and American Apparel actually mean that they will use extremely young women in promiscuous positions to sell their clothes, despite the fact that… middle of paper… he the rise of materialism, depression, sexuality at a young age and eating disorders are just a few examples that certainly have not been helped by advertising. As long as companies like American Apparel continue to produce images like they have been, these things will only get worse. Works Cited Chauduri, Saabira. "Nipples, nudity and a little striptease: American Apparel's new advertising campaign." Fast company. Fastcompany.com, November 21, 2008. Web. October 24, 2011. "Eating Disorder Statistics." Redevelopment Grant Program 2003. South Carolina Department of Mental Health, 2006. Web. October 24, 2011. “Killing Us Softly 4: The Image of Women in Advertising” Jean Kilbourne. 2010. Documentary