This Buy Nothing Day, November 25th, Optative Theatrical Laboratories will expose the theatre behind this conglomerate by performing in an undisclosed American Apparel store in the greater Montreal area.

Buy Nothing Day is an annual global celebration against rampant consumerism and consumer culture. It takes place the first day of the Christmas shopping season. It was started by Adbusters Magazine, who asks everyone to participate by not participating, and has spread virally to all corners of the earth in just a few years.

OTL has been proudly jamming the monoculture on Buy Nothing Day since 2002. McDonalds, WalMart, and Starbucks have been targeted and guerilla theatre performances have taken place in their stores. This year? American Apparel.

American Apparel is not as friendly as you might think they are. While they might not use sweatshop labour in their production, which should be a given instead of a sellpoint, they have created a different kind of sweatshop in Downtown LA and around the world.

Their ads, touted as empowering and liberating, are actually playing on an old advertising standard that victimizes women. These attitudes are mirrored by CEO Dov Charney, who has been accused of sexual harassment at the workplace more than once.

American Apparel has vigourously fought attempts to unionize it’s production faclility in downtown LA, even visiting workers at home and forcing them to attend anti-union rallies.

“Knowing that the company has bullied its workers, and that sexism pervades from the ad department up through the office of the CEO, it becomes clear that American Apparel is different only in degree, not kind, from its competitors.