Calvin Klein Campaigns

Calvin Klein is an American fashion house and luxury goods manufacturer established in 1968. It specializes in leather, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear.

The tradition of underwear as part of the Calvin Klein DNA goes back to 1971, when the company expanded from producing coats, to adding lingerie.

Calvin Klein didn’t earn its reputation for making cool-kid underwear overnight.

There’s a long tradition of ck advertisements using women/men to sell.

This takes us back to the iconic underwear campaigns from the '80s and '90s featuring Kate Moss, Mark Wahlberg, and Brooke Shields.

Calvin Klein found their formula and since then the iconic American brand is continuing with its scandalous and explicit campaigns.  

 On May 10 of 2016, Calvin Klein released a new batch of images for its spring campaign as an extension of what’s become an iconic advertising series: “I ___ in #mycalvins.” Shot by new-gen photographers Harley Weir and Tyrone Lebon, the campaign was an extension of the first batch of images which included Justin Bieber, FKA Twigs, and Fetty Wap sharing what they do in their Calvins, which ranged from “glowing” to “excelling” to “making money.” This new series of photos, however, took on a much more sexualized theme — Kendall Jenner holds up a grapefruit and says that she “eats” in her Calvins, and Abbey Lee Kershaw is pictured with her hand in her briefs (the accompanying text reads, “I pulse in #mycalvins”). The most provocative picture of the bunch is one of actress Klara Kristin in a dress and shot from below: “I flash in #mycalvins.” The reactions on Instagram and various media outlets were swift and horrified. The ads were called “disgusting” and “misogynistic,” and even pornographic.

In my opinion the horror that this campaign cause was a little bit to extended, and if  you think this campaign was a little bit too much, then you shouldn't go ahead and watch 

the creepy add from the 90s that got pulled off — now that's too much. 

But regardless of the drama and bad comments ck flipped the situation, Calvin Klein successfully asked its potential customers to step into the ad and imagine what they’d do if they had the underwear — just click on the #mycalvins hashtag. You’ll find thousands of post, most of them of young men and women who’ve literally purchased the product and then recreated the ads by themselves with creative selfies — GENIOUS!

 Anyways, I understand ck approach with its campaigns, and agree that sex, young and attractive people sells.

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Do you think these "explicit" campaigns are effective? 

What do you think are the potential pros and cons of these type of campaigns?