Pressured company
retires porn catalog

Abercrombie & Fitch announced it will permanently cease publication of a controversial quarterly catalog that prompted a boycott campaign by family advocacy groups.

Despite claims to the contrary in recent weeks, the Christmas issue featuring pornography and articles about "group sex and more" will be the company's last "magalog."

Abercrombie said it pulled the "Christmas Field Guide" from stores just before Thanksgiving to clear shelf space for a new perfume, but insisted another issue would come out in January with the usual naked young people in sexually provocative poses.

But the Ohio-based firm apparently has changed its mind.

TRENDING: Montana lawmaker follows Trump's lead, moves to designate Antifa as domestic terror group

"While it has enjoyed success with the quarterly over the years, the company believes it is time for new thinking and looks forward to unveiling an innovative and exciting campaign in the spring," Abercrombie said in a statement.

The announcement comes amid news that suggests the company's marketing philosophy is faltering, as November sales were reported down 13 percent over last year, the fourth straight year of decline.

Also, the CBS News program "60 Minutes" charged in a segment Sunday night Abercrombie hires only attractive, mostly white salespeople to sell its clothing, relegating others to jobs with little or no customer contact.

The retailer also is the target of a class-action lawsuit filed by former Clinton Justice Department civil-rights official Bill Lann Lee charging discrimination against minority job applicants.

Vulnerable to public opinion?

A boycott campaign bolstered by evangelical Christian leaders such as James Dobson and Charles Colson claimed responsibility for Abercrombie's decision to pull the Christmas issue from stores before Thanksgiving.

But the company claimed the racy quarterly was removed not because of pressure from the family advocacy groups, but to make room on it shelves for its new perfume, NOW.

That explanation did not ring true, however, to Maryam Kubasek, spokeswoman for the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, which helped lead the boycott campaign.

"I think it's ironic that they chose to make that kind of a merchandise decision in the middle of the biggest shopping period of the year," she told WorldNetDaily. "I think all retailers are vulnerable to public opinion, and I don't think A&F is immune to that."

But A&F spokesman Hampton Carney emphasized last week "there has been no real change in policy or editorial direction for the catalog" and insisted the spring issue would have plenty of nudity.

As the Field Guides were being pulled, the company announced it would feature its "infamous male and female greeters" on the day after Thanksgiving, the start of the Christmas shopping season.

"A dollar donation to Toys for Tots lets anyone snuggle up for a picture between two hunky, shirtless A&F guys," a news release said. "They'll make Santa think twice before he reaches for another slice of pumpkin pie."

The company said, "The Toys for Tots Program provides happiness and hope to disadvantaged children who might otherwise be overlooked during the Christmas holiday."

Founded in 1892, Abercrombie & Fitch operated a total of 694 stores at the end of November, including 173 Abercrombie stores and 164 Hollister Co. stores.

The quarterly began its racy approach to marketing in 1998. An order by the Michigan attorney general in 1999 – citing a state law barring disseminating, exhibiting and displaying sexual explicit matter to minors – forced Abercrombie to limit its sale to people 18 and over and require ID.

'Supersafe alternative'

The 2003 Christmas issue, the slipcover says, offers "280 Pages of Moose, Ice Hockey, Chivalry, Group Sex & More … ."

One article says "a pleasant and supersafe alternative to [group sex] is group masturbation – sometimes called a circle jerk or Jack-and-Jill-Off."

Mark Millar, a comic book writer shares this thought: "My idea is you have the Old Testament, the New Testament, and this is the Final Testament. This is a thing about Jesus coming back as a 12-year-old kid … pontificating whether or not he should masturbate … ."

In another interview, Sari Locker, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sex," says: "College is the time when you have the greatest opportunity to have sex [and] the highest number of potential sexual partners … ."

This year's issue also includes a "sexpertise" column that says kids going to college "shouldn't be looking for someone to marry." Rather they should be "focused on getting experience."

The "sexpert" employed by Abercrombie offers advice on "sex for three" and tells readers willing to "go down" on a date at the movies it's OK, "just so long as you do not disturb those around you."

A comparison column advises men on the benefits of sleeping with young school girls as opposed to older women, comparing the "fruits" of biting into "fresh apple right off the tree" versus the "store-bought variety that sit on the shelf wrinkled and bruised from the handling."

Editor's note: America's increasingly bizarre youth culture - pierced,
tattooed, and hyper-sexualized - is the focus of the shocking December issue
of WND's acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled "KILLER CULTURE." If you've
ever wondered why rap music and gangland clothing, extreme "body
modification," every type of sexual experience, drug abuse and other harmful
behaviors have taken such a powerful hold on today's young people - and at
progressively younger and younger ages - December's Whistleblower has the
answers you've never read anywhere else.

Subscribe to Whistleblower.

Previous stories:

Abercrombie plans another porn catalog

Porn catalogue gets yanked

Clothier pushes porn, group sex to youths

Related column:

Abercrombie & Fitch to your kids: Group sex now!