Carl’s Jr., Skechers and Perrier. What on earth do they all have in common? Sex. Or at least the ability to use it as a tool in their business ventures. When you think about this list of companies, inherently non-sexy images come up. That is until you look at their advertising and remember Carl’s Jr. had Kate Upton writhing around in a convertible with a spicy burger, Kim Kardashian used sexual innuendos in a Skechers commercial, and Dita von Teese poured expensive water down her chest for Perrier.

Advertising injected with sexual messages are literally everywhere you go and it’s because the old adage is true — sex does in fact sell. And one company in particular has been banking on this ideology for years until late 2014 when it finally crossed the brink of impropriety with customers.

Abercrombie & Fitch is known for its risqué reputation, its half-naked models and sexually suggestive shopping bags but that’s all about to change. Late last year longtime CEO of Abercrombie Micheal Jeffries stepped down and with him came the idea of Abercrombie as being exclusively for those who are, as he put it in an interview with Salon in 2006, “the attractive All-American kid”. Comments like this make it no surprise that Jeffries was not all that popular and therefore hurt the once wildly successful and popular brand. As of November 2014, sales had dropped 12 percent. When you consider the time of year in which this drop occurred, going headlong into the holiday shopping season, that is a significant drop.

All of this being said, it’s clear that the company has been having issues in the public eye, which is why it is finally doing something about it to reverse its polarizing image. In case you didn’t know, Abercrombie hasn’t always been about half-naked, ripped male models standing outside their stores. In fact, it started out as an outdoor gear shop selling equipment for becoming one with nature. Although it isn’t reverting that far back in its history, I think becoming slightly more neutral in its marketing is a very well thought out plan.

Although now I have (thankfully) outgrown the Abercrombie phase that was all the rage when I was in about junior high, I still think this is a very smart move for the company and my former eighth grade self would be pleased at the alterations being made.

For those who are frequent patrons, or have been in the past, you know what to expect from the retailer when you walk into one of their stores. An overwhelming fragrance that just about warrants a gas mask and employees who fit the “attractive All-American kid” standard set by Jeffries. Then upon closer inspection of the merchandise it becomes apparent that the garments are skimpy and in the ladies section, the largest size is a size 10 which is simply unrealistic.

As I mentioned previously, my eighth grade self would have been excited to see these changes and I’ll tell you why. During that time I was rapidly approaching 5 feet 10 inches and had already exceeded the sizes at Abercrombie. I had been in the store with my friends on occasion and it was kind of damaging to be told by an establishment that at age 13 I was already not what society expected of me. Of course now I realize the company was trying to make carbon copies of the perfect American teenager, but for the sake of the current middle schoolers going through the Abercrombie phase, I’m glad things are going to change for the sake of its body image and its views on sex.

Along with adding clothing above a size 10 for girls, which is ridiculous given the average American woman was a size 14 in 2010 and once you factor in the fact that obesity has reached 27.7 percent, other changes are also being implemented to reduce its sexually explicit nature. Employees no longer have to wear only Abercrombie product, nor do they have to be thin and physically perfect. The half-naked advertising will be seeing its final days. We all know that sex sells, but sometimes we have to peel back the top layer of risqué covering to see what is really underneath and what the company is really selling us.