NEW ALBANY, Ohio — Abercrombie & Fitch executives pulled their latest catalog from their stores in late November — as the Christmas shopping season was just kicking off — after a Cincinnati-based organization called the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families organized a boycott of the retailer.

But boycotts and protests about the quarterly porn catalog are nothing new to Abercrombie & Fitch, whose executives insist their decision to remove the catalog had nothing to do with the latest boycott. Rather, they insist, the publication was taken from stores to make room on the counters and shelves for a new line of perfume they wanted to introduce in time for Christmas.

“We put this holiday issue out earlier than usual, but it was still in our stores for six weeks,” Abercrombie spokesman Hampton Carney told CNN.

If sex sells, perhaps no mainstream business exploits it better than clothier Abercrombie & Fitch — an Ohio-based company with 311 stores throughout the United States, mostly in shopping malls near colleges.

Every year the company puts out a Christmas edition of its quarterly catalog many consider soft-core porn. In past years, the catalog has featured drag queens, porn queens and a variety of youthful homoerotic images.

One doesn't have to visit Abercrombie & Fitch or page through its magazine to get a full sense of the naked truth.

“I was walking through Cherry Creek Mall [in Denver] with my two boys,” said Richard Fleming of Denver, a Catholic parent of two boys ages 9 and 11. “We walked by Abercrombie & Fitch, and I was disturbed to see these giant, billboard-sized photos of young models — basically a lot of entangled, naked limbs. If there was any clothing on them at all it was a barely visible piece of a torn pair of jeans.”

This season's catalog, titled “Christmas Field Guide,” featured 45 pictures of sexual imagery in its first 120 pages, including overt portrayals of group sex, teen and young adult nudity, men kissing men and teens engaged in sexual activity while frolicking in water.

“This is a store that markets clothing primarily to teens and young adults,” said Steve Beirne, president-elect of the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers based in Dayton, Ohio, and publisher of Foundations, a newsletter for newly married couples.

“Abercrombie & Fitch understands that in a society as oversexed as ours, images of sexuality give young people a false sense of maturity and sophistication. In our society, unfortunately, children are told all the time that to be mature they must be sexually active.”

Company spokesman Tom Lennox responded that its quarterly is targeted at college-aged students. “You must be 18 and show proper identification in order to purchase it, period,” he said. “It is available only in Abercrombie and Fitch stores and not in our kids' stores, which are geared for children ages 7-14. Although it's intended to be edgy, and we take chances with the content, it has never been our intention to offend anyone.”

Promises More Skin

In case anyone doesn't believe Beirne, Carney said just wait until next spring. That's when the company's next quarterly issue will hit, and he promises at least as much skin as the company dished out this quarter.

“We will still have [rear nudity] and partial nudity,” Carney said.

Beirne said Carney's “ casual attitude — in the midst of public outrage — doesn't surprise him. He sees it as arrogance.

“This is typical of these type of self-appointed cultural leaders,” Beirne said. “They W think they're bold and on the edge. They believe that the more they titillate, scandalize and outrage, the bolder and bigger they will become. They are functioning in an age in which there is no bad publicity — ‘just spell my name right.’ Furthermore, comments like his are a way to marginalize and ridicule people who ascribe to values, moderation and modesty.”

The company regularly lands headlines for its catalog. Web logs are devoted to the topic, and any simple Internet search turns up hundreds of messages of outrage about Abercrombie & Fitch.

In 1999, the Abercrombie & Fitch Christmas catalog so outraged Illinois Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood that she called for a consumer boycott of the store.

Abercrombie & Fitch executives probably loved it, if one accepts the arguments of University of California-Berkeley student Kevin Lee.

Lee, a writer for Hardboiled — the UC-Berkeley Asian Pacific American newsmagazine — expressed outrage in 2002 when Abercrombie & Fitch marketed T-shirts that offended Asian-Americans and caused large groups of them to protest and organize boycotts. One shirt made fun of Asian laundries, with a mock ad that featured goofy-looking Asian men and the words “two Wongs can make it white.”

In an article titled “Pimped by Abercrombie & Fitch,” Lee argued that store executives were reacting to the Asian a protests with “jubilee and celebration” and a “massive back-patting session, knowing they just scored another publicity coup.”

He continued: “In an age where there is no such thing as bad publicity, Abercrombie hit a gold mine.”

Back in 1998, Abercrombie was the center of attention for titling one of its catalogs “Drinking 101.” The catalog featured drink recipes and a cutout reference guide to cocktails.

“The problem with that piece is that Abercrombie's target demographic were kids 16-22, a bit below the legal drinking age,” Lee told the Register.

The upside for Abercrombie & Fitch? “The story garnered massive media attention,” Lee said.

Lee accused the clothier of boldly celebrating a “white pride” ideology that appeals to a growing number of youth.

“They have promoted, as the meaning of their brand, the lifestyle of the rich and affluent offspring of the WASP [white Anglo-Saxon Protestant],” he said. “To be the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful meant freedom, access to an active lifestyle and the ability to skirt rules and get away scot-free. This image can be seen in Abercrombie's catalogs and ads.”

Another False God

Beirne said the catalogs promote a false sense of freedom and a mis-perception that sexual mayhem is somehow freeing to the individual.

“When sex is removed from the context of procreation and marriage, it gets distorted and becomes a form of idolatry,” Beirne said. “Sex becomes another false god. These ads promote sex as a form of freedom, but the kind of sexual behavior being promoted is really just a form of slavery.”

Although Beirne agreed Abercrombie & Fitch thrives on the publicity of irresponsible advertising campaigns, he argued that Christian parents must continue to express outrage and take action to economically punish the company.

“Parents need to organize well in order to protest and boycott and make sure this kind of [garbage] doesn't come into our homes,” Beirne said. “There are simply too many forces out there right now — forces outside of the family — promoting values that are not our values.”

Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.