Blog #7: Calvin Klein Ads

There have been many issues with Calvin Klein’s ad campaigns, involving the picture advertisements and commercials. There are many people against these campaigns, because they believe the advertisements resemble pornography, and child pornography. And I agree with them.

The ad campaign in 1991 shows a series of commercials with teenage to about early 20’s girls and boys in a basement being filmed by a man. The man is never shown, but you hear his voice. It is extremely disturbing to watch/listen to. In some cases, when the model does not mention Calvin Klein jeans (what they are modeling), the viewer could easily mistaken that advertisement for a pornography film. The cameraman’s voice is very low, and he talks to the models suggestively. He would ask them about their body; what they like about it, if they could, what they would change about it.

I can see how many people would see this as pornography, and in a way, I think it is. It shows young people in hardly any clothes (sometimes jjst wearing the CK jeans), and the man behind the camera asking them about their body. It seems as if he is holding auditions for a pornography. It is very disturbing to watch, and understandable how it was pulled from television so soon.

Another risqué Calvin Klein campaign was in 1999 was when he was advertising his new children’s underwear line. The advertisement shows two boys in their underwear jumping on a couch, and two young girls in their bra and underwear jumping on the couch. These ads were pulled immediately after people claimed it was child pronography. The marketer’s defense was that they wanted to capture realistic images of what children were doing. Their opposition believed they were sexualized images of young children.

In one way, you could think of it as “how else would you advertise children’s underwear”? And maybe the idea of it did not seem too bad on paper, but once you see it in the picture, it looks racy, especially for children.

Overall, Calvin Klein advertisements have pushed the public’s limit. Calvin Klein has had many criticized advertisements (mostly on billboards) over the course of about 10 years. I think that they knew how risqué their ads were, and wanted the all the attention from the media, like Dr. Jen Berman mentioned in an interview with CBS news. So, did they publish these ads knowing there was going to be a huge public uproar, and that Calvin Klein jeans would be the topic of many conversations? Or did they run these campaigns thinking it was a clever was to advertise?

Blog #5: Dove Campaign For Beauty

I think our society is obsessed with image. I think that (women especially) see the women on billboards and think that is the ideal body. The point of the Dove Beauty Campaign is to encourage young girls to find themselves beautiful.

I think our notion of the "ideal" body is from the media. The people we see on T.V and the flawless women in magazines make women believe that the ideal body for a women is flawless: no stretch marks, perfectly toned, flat stomach, no marks, but really, who's body actually looks like that? No one's. Every single picture in a magazine of a woman has been photoshopped in some way; whether its to reduce unwanted wrinkles, lines, to cover up blemishes, to touch up make-up, to fix stray hairs, to whiten teeth and so much more.

It has such a heavy influence on us. Everywhere we look, there is a picture of some beautiful woman or man we think we could never look like. We see these flawless people, and feel that we have to attract the opposite sex by looking like that. In reality, no one really looks like that.

Recently, Jessica Simpson was on the cover of Marie Claire and did her photoshoot with no make-up on, and no touch ups (although, I feel I should add that although the photos of her are very natural, no eye make-up, that she still had touch-ups done on her skin). She mentions how she had recently shot a documentary for VH1, called The Price of Beauty. She travelled around the world to find out what beauty was in different places of the world. She discovered in many cultures that it is beautiful to be full and have curves, and that it is not considered beautiful to be skin and bones.

I think teenage boys and girls are both influenced heavily by what body images their exposed to. Boys see tan, buff and attractive guys, and think that they have to look like that to attract girls. Truth is, it can be pretty hard for some buys to look like that. Some guys aren't able to build muscle. And do guys who donèt work out or don't look toned or buff or whatever, feel that they're unnattractive? Do they feel like they have to look a certain way to attract someone? I can't speak on behalf of guys feeling that way, but I can speak on behalf of the girls, and say that we do.


Here is a video promoting Dove's Campaign for Beauty.