Once again, a new sexually titillating ad campaign from Calvin Klein strikes a nerve. In New York City’s Soho neighborhood the ad, featuring a topless young woman engaged in kissing a young man while lying on top of another while yet another young man lies on the floor with his pants unbuttoned, adorns the side of an entire 5 story tall building. Some people find the ad so disgusting they are promising to boycott the jeans. The ad is so blatant one man told ABCNews, “If it were going on in the back of a parked car with steamed windows I would be arrested, yet they broadcast this to the whole city.”
Calvin Klein has a history of generating provocative ads that have caused havoc. There was the 1981 Brooke Shields ad in which she stated that nothing comes between her and her Calvins and last year, another banned ad featuring Eva Mendes exposing part of her nipple. The same photographer for controversial Abercrombie & Fitch shot the actor Mark Wahlberg and Brook Shields ads. Other ads were dropped because television stations refused to air them and the FBI investigated the company for potential child pornography charges.
Younger generations have always had more tolerant views of sexuality often declaring, “the more the merrier.” One young adult even declared, "All I can see are beautiful people having a good time…It's not the advertising that makes little children confused, it's the uptight handling with sex-related issues in general of their parents."
Yet, others say it pushes the envelope and is disgusting, vile, obscene, an orgy and pornography that you cannot turn off because it is on the side of a building and not on television. This is an ad that you cannot hide from. You are walking down the street with your four year old or your ten year old and it is staring you in the face. In my opinion, it’s inappropriate and depicts a girl willing to compromise her integrity for a pair of jeans.
Is this my age speaking? Am I really that out of touch with what is going on sexually with young adults? I lived in Europe where nude television and magazine ads are common. I remember being shocked at first, but became very comfortable with it after a short time. Yet, I would not want my daughter to appear in the ad nor would I want her to experience sex without love. And, I ask, why one woman and three men? Why not one man and three women or two men and two women? Maybe it is the thought of gang rape that scares me, but she seems to be participating willingly. I am a person who loves sex, cherishes it even. I feel it is a gift we give to one another. I am also a person who has a collection of banned books because I do not believe in book banning. Now, I am second-guessing myself and asking how far am I willing to go for censorship?
Take a look for yourself and tell me what you think…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvOJzxTyK88
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Beth Mann
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Comments
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090616/capt.024ab4b6f6124b629aef7d1ecc34f255.calvin_klein_racy_billboard_nysw101.jpg
OK, I sometimes feel there are just too many Puritans in modern America but I will admit that it's over the top. Of course on the other hand if it was a painting by Manet nobody would object.
It's more phony than anything else.
And people this young--does one actually believe they're good in bed??
But I can understand the uproar over it.
And for a child who would ask me, I'd tell him or her the truth. It's only a photo and that the actors in it are posing for a camera in a way that's supposed to be sexy.
Make it a teachable moment!
CK's intent is to provoke, because that's how they stay in the news.
=)
--rated--for somewhat repressed Peoria girls? tee-hee
Is it ENTIRELY too late for me to rectify that now?
Who used the pliers to zip floor-boy into his Calvins?
Oh, wait. The guys are just waiting for her to pass out so they can get working on each other, aren't they?
As for the photo, I think it's pretty nasty but then I don't wear their jeans anyway. The whole lot of them need some biscuits and gravy to get some meat on their bones!
You know, that may be a good theme for the world in general. Get over it!
(oh, for heaven's sake, relax. I'm just kidding....right?)
But yes, the right is going to run with this as another sign of the Apocalypse. And I'm sure Obama will get the blame.
And why don't they look like they're actually enjoying themselves? The ad looks like these jeans will cause your hair to fall out, glue shut your eyes, and kill your smile reflex.
It smacks of people behaving under substance abuse. More like a Heroin chic thing.
Since then,they've all grown up to be fine men and have done their part for keeping the world going around. I can't complain.
But someday, I'd like a bunch of decorative gents to be lounging around just for my amusement.
Darn you, Kalvin.
I vote it off just for the fact that it stinks.
Rather posed.
And (sorry) stiff, but in the wrong way.
Tijo, I think I've got Lee jeans! Far from the days when I bought my first Gloria Vanderbilt jeans back in the 70s. I thought I was so cool. Now I look for the jeans that stretch! I think maybe the guy on the floor ODed and the others missed it.
Congrats on the EP.
Congratulations on the EP! xox
But seriously - don't you see? No matter which way you cut it, they win. If its considered cool and hip, they win. If it's controversial, they win. If people are disgusted, they win. Their sales will never drop. They know it, you know it. And all the while, they (like American Apparel) pat themselves on the back for being "groundbreakers" when its the same exploitative bullshit that's been going for decades.
And shocker! Who's the most naked in the shots? No matter how "controversial" they claim to be, its still effin' women's tits and ass on the line. For once, for bloody effin once, exploit the male to the same degree. Let's balance out the sickness.
It is an ad trying to sell jeans, piggy-backing upon the insatiable and quenchless American Obsession(™) with Sex. An ad is a vehicle, The seller its driver... Why shoot the messenger?
It is an ad, people! It is what it is. It is only an ad.
However, I don't think it belongs on the side of a building.
Except uh, they are frightening the horses.
Yep, color me: "glad I'm not walking by with my 8 year old."
"others say it pushes the envelope and is disgusting, vile, obscene, an orgy and pornography that you cannot turn off because it is on the side of a building and not on television." Works for me. Not the photo, just the concepts in the quoted sentence. ;-)
jane smithie typed: "oh but ewwww on all that male hairlessness."
Yes. That's another piece of evidence for the men being gay. Personally, I like hair on women, including on legs.
ocularnervosa typed: "if it was a painting by Manet nobody would object." Don't you remember AG Aschcroft covering the breasts of a statue? As long as we have such a diseased view of sex, sexuality, our bodies, everyone else's bodies ...
LuisG typed: "And people this young--does one actually believe they're good in bed??" Me. I don't know about those folks in particular, but having been young millennia ago, I still remember how g-o-o-o-o-o-d some women my age and younger were. Not to mention how good women my current age are.
Redstocking Grandma typed: "We are all so nonjudgmental.
I would say that most of us are making judgements, just not all the same as yours.
Redstocking Grandma continued typing: "it is my ethics and morality speaking, not my age." Only, it seems to me if your ethics and morality were always as they are today?
And I reminded of this: "If electricity is produced by electrons, is morality produced by morons?" ;-)
Allie Griffith typed, though, considering what she typed, it's a wonder she managed: "Are you kidding? I assure you that (until I got married) no part of my integrity would have kept me from making it with three gorgeous guys at one time. I mean, come on, that's one to tell the grandchildren!
Well, I was fortunate enough to be with two women at once, once, and my grandchildren (5 and 2.5) are not ready to make sense of that. ;-)
lilyrahel typed: "Um, it's called 'homoerotic overtones.'"
It looks more like "tones" than "overtones."
Stellaa typed: "What is amazing is the money that was wasted on making this ad. The plans, the discussions, the meetings, the stylists. The girl does not even get a real pair of jeans, just cutoffs."
The money is wasted only if the ad doesn't pay for itself, at least from a capitalist point of view. And aren't cutoffs a tried and true method of attracting (straight) men (and lesbians)? Not to mention, they're easier to get off than full jeans. Makes sense to me.
Beth Mann typed: "For once, for bloody effin once, exploit the male to the same degree." I don't think most men would argue with that kind of exploitation. "Please don't throw me in the briar patch!"
incandescent typed: "Beautiful people having fun. The world needs more of that." I think the world needs more of merely attractive, plain, and down-right homely people having fun.
nanatehay, sounding dirtier (in my mind at least) than anyone else, typed: "i give it a two thumbs up :)"
Our hostess, MAWB, typed: "what I really don't like about it is the fact that there are 3 guys and one girl ... there is an issue of safety"
Many years ago, I ran into a recently former girlfriend in a grocery store and she told me about her enchantment at being with two men at once. I don't think safety was an issue to her.
And finally, hearkening back to "others say it pushes the envelope and is disgusting, vile, obscene, an orgy and pornography":
Two definitions of obscenity: one linguistic, one legal:
"2 a: abhorrent to morality or virtue; specifically : designed to incite to lust or depravity"
The Miller Test:
The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
So, linguistically: What's wrong with being incited to lust?
And legally: what's so horrible about appealing to one's prurient interest?
pru·ri·ent
1. having, inclined to have, or characterized by lascivious or lustful thoughts, desires, etc.
2. causing lasciviousness or lust.
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Smart women are so hot! - Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It worked.
Two, if those guys aren't gay, I am. And I'm not. That poor girl is just wasteing her time.
Three, This ad may have a sexual vibe, but, it isn't obscene. If you find it obscene then your dirty mind is reading a lot into the image.
Four, Why would people waste precious minutes of irreplaceable life worrying about what four junkies are doing just before they nod?
Five, I'd pay more attention to it if the body count was reversed.
By the way, it is the same with violence in the media. You want your kid to care about what's happening in the world, but you recognize that age 5 may not be the right time to introduce statistics about human trafficing.
Families live in Soho too-- its not all superhip 20 somethings.
It's a bit over the line, honestly. Not because those people are depicted as doing anything bad or anything like that, but because it veers too far into porny territory. It's kind of "Dear Penthouse, I didn't think it could happen to me but I bought these jeans and ..."
My guess, probably not...
I'd buy Calkin Klein jeans just to hope that a topless woman in short shorts ould lay on me... It's like the Axe commercials to. You can't get laid if you don't drown yourself in their stench... It's the retarded way that corporations advertise now. All pretension is gone. 'If you want to get laid, buy our shit.'
Damn young little punks.
What they don't realize is that we might(not "will") get too old to cut the mustard butt, I will ALWAYS be able to lick the jar;)
The most ridiculous part,though, is that a bunch of people sat around in a room and thought this up. And they got paid for it. (I would love to be a fly on the wall at some of these ad pitch meetings.)
The ad is just plain boring, bland. I could also be considered an old woman but I still remember doing stuff like this. But then I'm English, we're more shocked by the price of our gas these days - $8 per gallon! I would expect my daughter to do something like this but her jeans will be made of really thick latex.
We Americans have a lot of issues with sexuality--a whole raft of subscriptions. I'm not sure that I'm impressed enough with this billboard to care much one way or another. They all seem so damned bored, and I SOOO don't like the shaved body look on a guy.
big smile.