Charitable causes sell, and companies are following the example of celebrities like Madonna and Bono in the hopes of reaching more consumers by appealing to our good will. This trend has gotten somewhat out of control, with many companies and individuals abandoning the desire to really make social change in favor of simply scoring some press. If you want to make a killin’ put a cause on it, to misquote that Beyoncé song.
The American Apparel store in Manhattan’s Lower East Side now features mannequins in their window displays with pubic hair. “We created it to invite passersby to explore the idea of what is ‘sexy’ and consider their comfort with the natural female form,” said the company’s director of marketing Ryan Holiday.
It’s been a good year for twerking. In August, pop singer Miley Cyrus performed a rather controversial dance at the MTV Video Music Awards that featured the ass-quaking dance move. Not long after, the verb was inducted into the Oxford Dictionary Online, which defines it as dancing “in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.” And now, Chicago burlesque performer Michelle L’Amour has set the web on fire with a twerking routine to Beethoven’s Fifth.
