Tuesday, August 30, 2005
(8:31 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Almost too easy
The new Old Navy ad campaign specifically papers over the question of "where do clothes come from?" We've shifted from a traditional diner setting where a family orders new pants to a field where clothes literally grow out of the ground. It's a little too easy, even -- except that the wage levels are going steadily down. We go from the diner, where the staff earns minimum wage (less in the case of the waitress), to farm labor, which is currently performed mostly by illegal immigrants. Neither group of workers is currently unionized. So in the very act of obfuscating the source of clothing, Old Navy is slyly winking toward the underlying reality -- perfectly in keeping with the campiness that the American public has come to associate with the Old Navy brand.Can we expect a further education in political economy? Will the next commercial find a group of attractive but unintimidating teens, mostly but not solely girls, literally showing up at the Third World sweatshop? Can we expect a few intermediary steps? Perhaps some kind of mining operation would be a possibility.
