On Saturday, vandals smashed the windows of the American Apparel store on Broadway, moving on to take out windows of the neighboring GNC and other stores. American Apparel sent around this photo of the group in action. Police arrested several involved in the attacks, which caused one American Apparel employee to break her arm. Following a similar attack on the Williamsburg American Apparel, Gothamist wonders if the window smashing is just an elaborate marketing campaign.
With so many anarchist attacks on the store lately, this latest by some marketable teen$, we wonder if this is just their new ad campaign. They told us the busted out windows will cost around $3,000 to replace ... which has got to be cheaper than a billboard on Houston Street.
An American Apparel spokesman confirmed they are not putting employees, shoppers, and bystanders in harm's way for the pure sake of exposure. He wrote in an e-mail statement:
Obviously American Apparel isn't a stranger to this kind of vandalism, we went through it last year in DC for somewhat related reasons. So unfortunately this is very real and not an ad campaign - as the broken windows and broken arm of our employee can attest to.
The attacks in D.C. were a response to the "Legalize Gay" T-shirts on display in the store windows. And American Apparel, with their best-ass contest and everything, is probably the last store that needs to arrange for crazy new methods — like violence — of getting attention.
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