Calvin Klein is back with his first television ad since the 80s, and — surprise — it's already been banned from late night cable TV. Let's watch it and try to get offended.
The ad — shot by Steven Meisel — features 6 impossibly hot models with hard-to-pronounce names dry-humping on what appears to be an old basement couch.
Sounds good, right? And I suppose it's alright, and provocative enough. That's sort of the problem. The 31 second ad seems so calculated to be 2000s era avant garde. It's like a delicately scored mash-up all of the 'edgy' sex-selling gimmicks you find in an average American Apparel ad:
- Gritty "almost like porn but prettier" aesthetic
- Voyeurism (Check out the arty security camera angles.)
- The hint — just the hint — of sexual violence around 0:22. (In this case, it's simply the usual throat stroking that precedes self-absorbed nipple rubbing. Nothing truly objectionable like Meisel's unsettling "State of Emergency" Vogue spread in 2006.)
I'm not particularly scandalized. And I sort of wanted to be. Maybe I just need to pour myself a glass of wine and watch it again... and again... and again...
Calvin Klein Revives Scandalous Jeans Commercials [NY Mag]
Calvin Klein Steams Up the Airwaves