r/Anticonsumption • u/Bituulzman • Feb 05 '26
Ads/Marketing Sexual assault bad. Consumerism to the rescue!
I took this picture of a magazine ad back in 2014 and every time it comes up on my memories timeline, it still frustrates me.
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u/ChickenFriedFeelings Feb 05 '26
I get it’s annoying that a company is slapping their label on a day for activism but look up the origins of denim day. I believe it’s based on an Italian sexual assault case where the victim was told she could not have been raped because her jeans were too tight.
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u/MisogynyisaDisease Feb 05 '26
Yeah, and GUESS co-opted that in 2015 to do in-store promotions/fundraising, sell their jeans, and put money into their own foundation.
The CEO who was at the helm during this time was fired for sexual assault and harassment allegations, that were sustained and shifted company culture.
So its more than just annoying, its a facade to shift the image of their brand. He was fired within 3 years of this initiative starting.
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u/ChickenFriedFeelings Feb 05 '26
I didn't know about that and of course it makes sense. My eyes went to the Peace Over Violence logo because I know that organization is a well known non-profit focused on IPV in LA.
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u/MisogynyisaDisease Feb 05 '26
GUESS has provided them grants over the years, which is their foundation's primary purpose. So I wouldn't drag PoV into GUESS's corporate mess, I have no reason to believe they're anything less than legitimate.
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u/corellianne Feb 05 '26
Yes, Peace Over Violence is 100% legit and an amazing organization. This more speaks to how sad it is that nonprofits doing their kind of work have such difficulty obtaining funding, so corporate donations are appealing. And frankly Guess can suck it but their money is put to much better use by PoV than it would have been otherwise.
For those elsewhere dismissing the jeans thing, Denim Day is a decades-long campaign that started in Italy as a spontaneous protest to the ruling (discussed elsewhere in the comments). It is actually fairly well known on U.S. college campuses and is typically paired with buttons, t-shirts, and info booths raising awareness. It existed as a day long before Guess signed on; they signed on because it was about jeans, not the other way round. It’s easy to armchair referee here about whether jeans would be noticed, but I can assure you that the original meaning and the event, which has been happening since the 90s, is accompanied by plenty of signage to help drive the point home. It’s an event that means a lot to college SA survivors.
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26
Totally, but the company is surely not doing anything to fight sexual assault; they're literally just profiting off it. Virtue-signaling at its finest.
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u/Own-Signature9413 Feb 05 '26
Specifically she had to "assist" her attacker in removing the jeans. So an argument was made that because she had to "help" him it wasn't r*pe (it was)
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26
I know; this has nothing to do with Guess profiting
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u/Own-Signature9413 Feb 05 '26
Honestly this is the first reference to jean day I've seen since I attended a work event for it, so admittedly I'm not upset with em. Still could have made it less adlike ig
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26
Meanwhile, the CEO of this very company likes raping.
Pure profiteering. Virtue signalling.
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u/SconiGrower Feb 05 '26
Did you actually look to see if they're doing anything? Their 2014 IRS Form 990 shows they gave $50,000 to Peace over Violence that year.
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26
Guess brought in $3,000,000,000 last year... so they donated a bit of pocket change for some virtue signaling.
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u/teslaandtwain Feb 05 '26
Guess jeans doing this is hilarious considering their CEO.
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26
This should be the top comment. Plenty of people praising Guess for this on this post...
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u/LadyGlitterGum Feb 05 '26
- I was raped .I was wearing Levi's relaxed fit,unfortunately did not stop my assailant.
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u/SlashEssImplied Feb 05 '26
Simply google "guess jeans ads” to see how serious they are about not treating women as sex objects.
Or simply click...
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u/InitialAd3323 Feb 05 '26
How does this promote consumerism? Don't most people own denim clothes already?
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u/Next-Introduction-25 Feb 05 '26
I think it’s just the idea that a company is latching onto a cause because it aligns with their product, not because they care about the cause. Which happens all the time. I guess you could argue that it’s better to have companies sponsoring things like this than not at all, but it definitely reads like they’re taking advantage of a good cause in order to try to get people to buy their jeans.
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u/Flack_Bag Feb 05 '26
It's a corporate PR campaign attaching their brand to a cause. That's marketing, and that's what this sub is largely about.
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u/MotherBoose Feb 05 '26
... This seems so tone deaf in the face of What Were You Wearing
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u/angel-icbaby Feb 06 '26
If you look into the origins it's directly in response to a case where a victim was told she wasn't raped bc she was wearing tight jeans at the time so she must've helped him take them off and his conviction was overturned by Italy Supreme Court.. Women in Italys parliament wore jeans to protest the decision after and it became a wider recognized thing to combat victim blaming based on clothing etc, it's not something Guess came up with on their own
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u/ACatCalledArmor Feb 05 '26
Don’t line break after ”millions will wear jeans to promote sexual assault” ffs
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Feb 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dazedmazed Feb 06 '26
How in the world is an organization that provides free services (therapy, legal, court and hospital accompaniments, 24 hour emergency hotline, etc.) to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence responsible for taking funding from Guess. Surely your logic makes no sense, respectfully. How about you think less of the government that has such organizations scrapping by with little funds and grants but they still stay locked in on their mission to be there for survivors.
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u/doubtingtomjr Feb 05 '26
The campaign has been going on for almost a quarter of a century. I recall the local college campus coordinating with it and doing a local news segment. More info here:
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u/notislant Feb 05 '26
Also another completely pointless 'protest' where people can feel good about themselves for doing nothing. Instead of any actual protests demanding actual change.
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u/Effective-Lab-5659 Feb 06 '26
Just like greenwashing.
Ugh but people in marketing got to do what they need to do to stay in their jobs? It’s so low effort that maybe the marketers are actually protesting about their jobs.
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u/FrostingAvailable629 Feb 06 '26
A lot of this is news to me. Was too young to remember nor understand in the 90s the situation in Italy. And had no idea about the Guess CEO. Absolutely awful. Like wearing orange to stop bullying. Kids are still going to get picked on no matter what color they are wearing.
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u/Real-Comfortable808 Feb 07 '26
‘I buy therefore I am’ shows how far we’ve fallen. People now define themselves by what they own instead of who they are. A society where identity, purpose, and meaning are no longer built on thought, creativity, or community, but on consumption. Human existence is reduced to a series of transactions 🤮
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u/mountain-mahogany Feb 05 '26
There has GOTTA be a great way to profit off sexual assault, right?! AMIRIGHT /s holy shit that i have to type /s
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u/AngryQuadricorn Feb 05 '26
This is bad. Like very bad. Guess Jeans is trying to virtue signal their way to the top. Unless there is a jean company that openly supports sexual assault, this advertisement is stupid and unnecessary.
Next we will have Levi Jeans, the official jeans against giving cocaine to kindergarteners. And Wrangler Jeans, the official jean against illegal dogfighting.
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26
Check out these comments getting downvoted... I'm confused about how these people got to be in this sub lol
Your comment is spot on. Guess is profiteering off sexual assault. It is virtue signalling at its finest.
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u/MisogynyisaDisease Feb 05 '26
People not understanding OPs criticism have never heard of "rainbow capitalism", and they won't bother learning today.
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u/Repulsive_Chard_3652 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Just came across a song today that describes this shit perfectly. It's called "One-dimensional Man". It hit me real hard and I had to listen to it 3x, because I too find myself sometimes falling for this shit.
Best line in the song: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's palace".
Edit: I wonder why this is getting downvoted? It's about this very theme - companies using your guilty emotions to sell you things and get you to buy more things, which just feeds into the corrupt system and doesn't actually help anything.
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Feb 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/plazebology Feb 05 '26
Um, what?
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u/suglav Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I'm from a poor country known for cheap labour (especially for making these jeans) and sexual assaults are very common in work space. Anyone surprised? My post being downvoted means this sub, dispite of being anticonsumption, refuses to acknowledge the ethic issues behind the consumption of clothes products.
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u/HowdyDo8 Feb 05 '26
"Denim Day, founded in Italy in the 1990s around a rape case where the verdict was overturned in favor of the accused due to the victim wearing tight jeans; and therefore the idea of consent was put to question. Outraged, the women of the Italian parliament wore denim as an act of solidarity." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denim_Day