TO THE POLLS: American Apparel LLC wants you — to vote, that is.
The Los Angeles-based firm’s latest marketing push in some ways takes it back to its roots as not just a company selling T-shirt blanks, but one backing an assortment of causes. The latest? The presidential election.
The manufacturer and retailer today launched a #whyvote campaign it’s hoping will get its followers to be a part of the election conversation and ultimately vote. It comes ahead of California’s presidential primary election June 7.
The social media campaign includes a video on issues around domestic manufacturing, immigration reform and equality, along with a separate landing page where people are invited to submit their own films, photos, drawings or other mediums around the #whyvote theme. Submissions will be taken through May 30, at which time the three best pieces of work will be selected with a grand-prize winner taking home $2,500 and slotted to be featured in future company advertising.
The campaign comes as the company looks to dig itself out of what’s been a challenging environment for most retailers that last year saw not only American Apparel’s bankruptcy, but Chapter 11 filings from Quiksilver and more recently, Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. American Apparel emerged from bankruptcy in February and has continued in earnest with a number of cost-cutting measures and other means to right-size the business.
Chief executive officer Paula Schneider most recently announced to workers a realignment of the factory floors in an effort to match the production workforce with what the company’s wholesale accounts and customers at retail are buying. The company declined to say how many cuts that amounted to, but The General Brotherhood of Workers of American Apparel, the group aiming to help workers unionize, said the layoffs amounted to more than 500 across the company’s Los Angeles, Garden Grove and South Gate facilities.