Friday, June 19, 2009

Has Calvin Klein Gone too Far with Ad?


From my Marketing POV, Calvin Klein is a great brand with amazingly chic clothes and I feel like they don't have to go out of their way to create controversy to sell the brand. I'm all for creative expression but you don't always need to use sex to sell everything. It gets old rather quick and it kind of suggest that their marketing and advertising people couldn't think of anything else to promote the clothing, so they fall back on using sex to sell. Let the product sell itself.

This type of advertising gets in the way of successfully communicating the product by distracting the audience from the purpose of the ad, which is to promote the product. With ads like this, the product gets lost amongst the blatant sex appeal.

With so much pressure on young women (be it directly or indirectly) to be sexy and to do things they might not be emotionally ready for, are ads such as this contributing to the pressure to be sexy? Although in this new day and age, sex is viewed in a different way than in the past and people are less judgemental but despite the changes there is still a double standard applied to women compared to men when it comes to sex. It's a porn-inspired or centered aesthetic that sends the message (mostly teen girls) that if they dress or act that way, they will be accepted.

Some questions that have arise from these ads are: "What is Calvin Klein's social responsibility for these types of ads?", "How are they contributing to society's well-being?" and "How far will companies go to out-sex each other to try to get consumers attention?"

Has Calvin Klein gone too far? What is your opinion?

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2 comments:

MLC84 said...

yeah, this ad would not make me want to buy a pair of Calvin Klein Jeans.

Anonymous said...

Still stuck in the 70s and 80s I see...

This ad directly impacts on all the young women in my family; all this talk of liberation yet no respect for the women who choose to behave differently from this portrayal.

I guess they're looking for more recruits to their lifestyle and don't want to sell product. The values of that company don't match mine; which means no money for CK from this woman.

And the people I know whom this ad targets don't act this way nor do they wish to.

the ad is a blatant fail.