advertisement
About Advertising Industry

BNET Advertising provides daily industry trends and news coverage with insights for managers and executives about the major agencies in advertising, marketing, and public relations. In addition to detailed company and agency profiles, we bring you detailed industry analysis on new partnerships and acquisitions, ad buying and cost, new investments, inventory issues, and other issues critical to the marketing sector.

Calvin Klein's "Banned" Orgy Ad Is Part of Predictable Fake Controversy Trend

By Jim Edwards | Jan 29, 2009

Calvin Klein has deliberately produced a steamy commercial that it knew had no chance of being aired on TV. (See video below.)

The ploy is an increasingly common one among advertisers who realize they can find larger audiences online than they can on TV.

The ad features six models, barely dressed in CK jeans, writhing on a sofa and feigning sex. The footage seems to be take from a hidden camera.

Because of the nudity, CK management must have known no channel would air the ad. TV spot standards and practices are well-known to major advertisers. With the assured “controversy” in hand, the company has released the video on YouTube, where the attention of bloggers (*sigh*, I know …) will assure it has a longer life and a larger audience.

Other advertisers who have recently made overt attempts to get their ads banned — and garner the attendant free publicity — include:

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

BNET User Analysis

Web Buzz:
  • Why Calvin Klein hopes you hate its threesome billboard

    Crikey - 160 days 21 hours 28 minutes ago

    People are up-in-arms about a steamy new Calvin Klein billboard in New York, featuring a scantily dressed lady and three men about to get down and dirty (in denim) -- and that's just the way they want it

  • Around the Net In Brand Marketing: Calvin Klein Steams Up The Air Waves

    MediaPost - 298 days 11 hours 13 minutes ago

    And while you're at it, WWD has exclusive footage of Calvin Klein's new commercial "so provocative it initially was banned from even late-night cable TV." Shoo away the little shavers first.   Read the whole story at Women's Wear Daily

  • Calvin Klein MP3 Speaker Bottle: The Scent of a Gimmick [Mp3]

    Gizmodo - 278 days 7 hours 29 minutes ago

    As part of their "We are One" campaign beginning next month, Calvin Klein will be offering bottles of CK One & CK Be with a removable MP3 speaker in the base. Apparently, the speaker tie-in reflects the notion that music is a universal language, so it has a thin-marketing relationship to the "unity" theme. But my question is--what about math? Is...

  • Actors take on Calvin Klein role

    Drapers - 150 days 3 hours 29 minutes ago

    Calvin Klein has teamed actress Eva Mendes with actor and model Jamie Dornan to star in its autumn 09 underwear and jeans advertising campaigns. The global campaign will appear in a variety of international media from early autumn. You must sign in to make a comment

  • Eau De P.O.S.: A new hybrid fragrance by Calvin Klein

    Crave - 277 days 4 hours 9 minutes ago

    (Credit: Sephora ) Banking on the not-so-recent popularity of digital audio, opportunist Calvin Klein is kicking off his latest "We Are One" campaign with a commemorative bottle of the classic CK1 fragrance that features a removable speaker at its base. Calvin Klein's been a fashion staple since 1968, but we'...

 
Reply to Story

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

  •  
    1

    myson1

    01/30/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Calvin Klein?s ?Banned? Orgy Ad Is Part of Predictable Fake Controversy Trend

    Jim,

    This is all getting so "old"! It's looking like the tail-end of reality tv - an idea that was fresh, was overdone, got stale and eventually led to the realization that perhaps "me too" is not a substitute for real talent.

    myson1

  •  
    2

    salgo

    02/03/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Calvin Klein?s ?Banned? Orgy Ad Is Part of Predictable Fake Controversy Trend

    How do these white people think they are going to reproduce so their segment of the global population does not diminish until it finally disappears? If jeans are obstructing the penetration of a penis into a vagina, the chances of conception are about 1 in 37,596 attempts. Kyoto Idol is perhaps a subversive because by suggesting a menage a trois between two guys and one girl, only one pregnancy could possibly occur, thus wasting one of the male's efforts at reproduction should any conception occur at all. With a male to female ratio of 1:2 chances are much greater that more little white babies could be produced, thus replenishing the shrinking segment of those whose ancestry is European. Personally, I could care if any there are any Europeans around in 300 years or not. Or, any other ethnic or regional division between members of the human. It would be nice if we could acknowledge that when all is said and done, we are all the same species and all that divides us are language, reactionary governments, and racists supporting those governments. But some of the people in 'post-industrial' wealthy countries whose populations are declining, worry about the eventual fate of their progeny in the future. These countries are European nations, those of European ancestry in the US and Canada, and Japan as well (whose citizens were recognized as nominal 'white people' by those paragons of progressive thinking, the leaders of the National Party in South Africa during Apartheid). It seems logical that they should take off their jeans during coitus. if they would take off their jeans while having sex. If they leave their jeans on, the chances of conception remain about 1 in 37,596 attempts. So, if they refuse to take their jeans off, they should get very busy and both men must start ejaculating at least once every 15 minutes each day (a combined total of 192 ejaculations) for 193 days. That would produce a total of 37,576 ejaculations. The fact that the jeans would be soaked in semen and vaginal fluids within a couple of days may seem that it would increase the odds of conception. Unfortunately the sperm will soon die and simply become a barrier so that fresh living sperm will have a greater obstacle to overcome before one can achieve the noble goal of fertilizing one of those little ovum upon which the human race once depended for its survival (of course, we now know that men are obsolete in terms of survival of the human race; however, there remain some conservative types whose distrust of science would make Pope Urban VIII and the flunkies of the Inquisition look like radical empiricists). Of course, it would be pointless to spend so much effort, energy, semen, and vaginal arousal at the time during a cycle when a woman is least fertile. So, it's recommended that if they must have on jeans when having sex, they should concentrate their efforts during 12 days each menstrual cycle when a female is most fertile. With this in mind, those 37,576 ejaculations should be distributed over 15 or 16 menstrual cycles. Let's hope that the magic number is not ejaculation #37,583, since that one never happened. All that energy for nothing. So, for the sake of European progeny take off the jeans when you have sex.

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

advertisement
advertisement
Click Here
advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement