Should American Apparel have handled Nancy Upton's win differently?

A	Yes, they should have offered Upton the prize she earned, or at least acknowledged her concerns and apologized

B	No, they had reserved the right to choose any contestant, and they had no reason to choose someone who wasn't playing by the rules. Their response was reasonable.

Nancy Upton, a current Internet favorite, won the popular vote with her artistic protest against American Apparel's plus-size model search contest. American Apparel's "Next BIG Thing" contest raised eyebrows for its disrespectful language, but it probably won't have made so much news if Nancy Upton hadn't called a photographer friend to take photos of her drenched in ranch dressing and eating a chicken in a pool and entered them in the contest.

Upton wants to send the message that weight and beauty are not mutually exclusive, and that being a large person is not a sole defining characteristic. Her tagline on the contest site read, "I just can't stop eating," and the photos show an over-the-top, satirized version of what American Apparel (and other clothing companies) thinks of fat people. She objected to the contest's implication that "a subservient, nearly naked woman has always earned a place in American Apparel’s advertising with no trouble, but that larger women need to vote each other down and compete against one another to even deserve a chance." American Apparel heard this message as loud and clear as Upton's supporters did, and they've decided not to give her the first-place contest prize.

Upton didn't intend or aim to win the contest -- she encouraged readers to vote for the other applicants, and said that she wouldn't accept the prize were it offered to her. She predicted that she wouldn't ever hear from the company if she were to win the popular vote. (American Apparel had a waiver attached to the contest reserving the right to give any or none of the prizes to any or none or the applicants.) However, earlier this week Iris Alonzo, creative director at American Apparel, sent Upton an open letter explain why she wouldn't receive the prize.

oxJane.com calls the letter "bizarrely defensive," and "flat-out scolds Upton, schoolmarm style, for daring to question their good intentions." The full letter is here on Upton's blog and at The Frisky, who find the letter "douchey" and "nasty". Upton spoke with Alonzo today, and the American Apparel executive offered to fly Upton and photographer Shannon Skloss to LA to "get a look at what it’s really like being inside the company." Upton "agreed, as long as I could write about what I saw." I look forward to reading about it.

Do you think an open letter denying Upton the prize was the best approach to the situation? The Atlantic Wire thinks "American Apparel might have been better-served swallowing its pride and giving Upton the win, or maybe issued an apology for the clunky advertisements." Maybe it doesn't matter, but do you think American Apparel should have handled Nancy Upton's win differently?

Eleanor Brown

Should American Apparel have handled Nancy Upton's win differently?

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