Brands Are Getting Ready For A Horny, Vaccinated Summer
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With everyone finally getting the jab, it will soon be time for everyone to get jabbed.
Amsterdam-based men’s fashion brand SuitSupply sparked chatter Thursday following the reveal of its Spring/Summer 2021 campaign, which features heavy petting, bare skin, and a whole lot of tongue. The ads declare “The New Normal Is Coming,” though spelling “coming” with a “u” might have been more appropriate.
People on Instagram and Twitter responded in confusion. Is this just a raunchy way to attract customers’ attention? Is the inclusion of some gay kissing some sort of political statement? Is SuitSupply promoting orgies?
The meaning seemed clear enough to me: A year ago, people were preparing for the “new normal” of covid-19 lockdown. Now, as vaccinations surge and cases decrease, the worst just might be behind us. So we best get ready, because post-pandemic, people are going to be fucking like it’s the fall of Rome.
SuitSupply confirmed my suspicions in an email to Jezebel:
Post-pandemic life is on the horizon. Social distancing for extraordinarily long periods of time have conditioned us to fear proximity of others and that is perfectly justified. “The campaign is simply a positive outlook on our future where people can get back to gathering and getting close.” says Suitsupply Founder & CEO Fokke de Jong.
Close is right:
SuitSupply isn’t the only brand teasing out pandemic’s end. Fast fashion retailer ASOS recently posted a video to their Instagram account with the caption “Hitting the clubs on 21st June like…” On February 22, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England aims to end covid-19 restrictions by June 21.
Perhaps not so coincidentally, that same day, ASOS (a U.K.-based brand) promoted this optimistic shirt on their Instagram account:
President Biden believes that there should be covid-19 vaccinations available for every American adult by the end of May. While summer 2021 certainly won’t resemble summer 2019, it’s easy enough to imagine a scenario in which, by late July or August, large swaths of the American public will have received both rounds of the lifesaving vaccine. We can quibble with specifics, but let’s be real: families will gather, friends will hug for the first time in over a year, and people will be revving to hook up with strangers like never before. If there’s an article about condom sales going through the roof by September, know you heard it here first.
Still, we’re not there yet: While new cases have dropped off considerably since their peak in early January, there has been a slight uptick in both cases and deaths in the last week. Additionally, health experts worry that the rate of covid-19 cases is flattening at too elevated a level, which could spark surges. This, along with Republican governors prematurely lifting statewide covid-19 safety mandates, could counteract mass vaccination efforts and the prospects of a summer that at least feels a little more normal than the one before it.
But most ads delight in playing into people’s fantasies, not their fears. While our kneejerk reaction to the SuitSupply ad may be to question the covid-19 guidelines in place on the set, it does get us to imagine what a post-pandemic lifestyle could look like. Spoiler: It looks like Sodom and Gomorrah, and I, for one, would love if state and local governments would maintain strict social distancing guidelines so that that fantasy can become a reality.
In the meantime, let’s prepare ourselves for the onslaught of horny (and hopeful) summer vaccination advertising that is almost assuredly on the horizon.