Jes Baker posted provocative photos of herself wearing paired with a guy who looks like he could be a real Abercrombie & Fitch model. She targeted the brand because of recent comments made by CEO Mike Jeffries, implying the company caters to the thin and beautiful. The photos were taken last Saturday and went up on her blog on Sunday. By Monday, she was a social media sensation with what she dubbed A & F -- Attractive&Fat. I caught up with Jes in a Skype interview.
"Sometimes in media if you were to look, you would see more fat men with not fat women, for example in sitcoms, maybe in 'Family Guy'. You would see that more often than you would ever see a fat woman with a conventionally attractive man," said Baker.
"So I wanted to show that and see what would happen and it certainly sparked some conversation," said Baker.
She's now getting 120,000 hits a day on her blog. And if you Google Abercrombie & Fitch advertising, her images now pop up among the usual suspects.
Baker says she hasn't heard directly from Abercrombie & Fitch yet and the company did not respond to our request for an interview.
But shoppers here in San Francisco were well aware of the photos.
Brinkley: "So you'd like to see these featured as ads?"
Shopper Frank Rappenne: "Yeah. Yeah. We are not all thin and muscular."
"A&F -- Attractive & Fat -- absolutely," said Rachel Inglefield, a shopper.
"If all bigger ladies get hot men then what a great world to be in," said Sophia Wardman, a shopper.
