If you operate in an industry littered with accusations and actual accounts of the women workers who make your products being exploited financially and sexually, why in the world would you make such ads?

I don’t have a clue where Ecko jeans are made, but I highly doubt that the skimpily clad women featured in these videos actually make the jeans. I’ve spent months talking with women garment workers around the world and I’m utterly insulted by these ads. In Bangladesh, Arifa, a single mother, works hard so she doesn’t have to ship another son off to Saudi Arabia to work. In Cambodia Nari and Ai support 6 and 7 family members a piece on their paychecks. In China Zhu Chun tries to earn enough so her son can go to college.

Garment factories aren’t always “sweatshops,” but regardless of the country in which they are located, life for the garment worker isn’t bikini tops, thong bottoms, high heels, boob jobs, plastic surgery, personal trainers, gym memberships, or $80 pairs of jeans. To compare life as a garment worker to these things is utterly inexcusable.

Ecko might support some good causes, but whatever good they do is erased by this obscene marketing campaign. 

(Note: The owner of the company is Marc Ecko who was the highest bidder for Barry Bonds’ home run ball 756 that he branded with an asterisk. Bonds thinks Ecko is an idiot and I think I’d have to agree.)

I called Ecko to express my concern and the fella I spoke with said the campaign is a way to get the interest of people (let’s call them MEN) to see where denim comes from. He confirmed that their factories are located overseas and that their workers probably didn’t wear bikinis as they worked. I told him that I thought it would be neat if they could do a similar type of tour, perhaps without the porno music (it’s on their hold music too!), with actual workers who are fully clothed. He didn’t have much to say about that. Really, what could he have said other than sex sells and reality doesn’t?

I’m not against women in bikinis selling me stuff, but the usage here is pretty poor taste. I will never buy a pair of Ecko jeans or any of their other products, including Skechers shoes.

If you’re offended by this, too, you should contact Ecko Manufacturing and let them know.

eckomfg [at] ecko.com
917-262-1002 (ask for Ecko Manufacturing)

**Do you have more thoughts on this offensive advertising campaign?  Do you know more about the actual working conditions in Ecko factories globally?  Did you call or e-mail Ecko Manufacturing?  How did they respond?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below or if you have a blog post to share, send it to laborrights [at] ilrf.org.

**Other analysis of this advertising campaign can be found at Feministing, Don't Do That,  Sociological Images and Jezebel)