American Apparel Plus Size Competition: When Big Things Go Wrong (PHOTOS)

When an American Apparel contestant wins a contest after purposely mocking the company as a spoof, how do you reward the winner at hand? 

Nancy Upton, a 24-year-old blogger from Dallas, TX, saw an ad for American Apparel's "Next Big Thing" competition last month, searching for plus size models for their new campaign.

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Out of disdain for the competition she decided to enter as a spoof, making fun of American Apparel's ideas on beauty, weight and health. 

"I don't believe that beauty should be qualified as BECAUSE of someone's size or IN SPITE of someone's size," Upton told NY Mag, "Beauty is Beauty, it's fluid, it's objective and it doesn't need to be justified to or by anyone."

When an online voting system choosing the winner for "The Next Big Thing" contest chose Nancy Upton, American Apparel creative director Iris Alonzo sent Nancy a letter.

After the company was notified Upton's entry was a parody, Alonzo fired back:

It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language ... I wonder if you had taken just a moment to imagine that this campaign could actually be well intentioned, and that my team and I are not out to offend and insult women, would you have still behaved in the same way, mocking the confident and excited participants who put themselves out there?

Oh — and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company.

Nancy posted the response letters to her blog, and went on to say how she never would have represented the company anyway.

"I most certainly would not model for American Apparel because (pretty obviously) I don't agree with their business practices. I also would not expect to be asked to do so even if receive a majority of the votes (something planned on). That being said, someone will. While I disagree with the message American Apparel is sending in the way they handled this competition, other people do not.... And I respect that opinion."

SOURCE: Daily Mail

Check out the photos Nancy Upton sent in for "The Next Big Thing" campaign in our gallery. What do you think, do you agree with Nancy? 

Photos

Nancy Upton: American Apparel's Plus Size Competition Winner (PHOTOS)