Eric Wilson wrote an article in The New York Times, which can be read at Calvin, about how Calvin Klein takes the lead in its sexuality of its fragrances. In 1994's CK One, sexuality and grunge were ecompassed by the youth. Black and white ads with moping models depicted this, and these fragrances were even sold in record stores in the grunge music area. This broke industry records and rules. The goal was to give Generation X a unisex brand that would capture the essence of youth, beauty, and sexual boldness in a bottle. A sequel is now coming out for hip 20-somethings, hoping to repeat the same success since today's youth and young adults tend to spend more money on electronics than fashion and fragrances. This fragrance will be without era defining instincts. In the ads and commercials, a boy and girl are in a compromising sexual position leaning into each other and she is pulling at his belt while he has a strand of her hair. Watery grafitti images are of the words "sex" and "today' with 2 rocket silo shaped bottles in a white plastic i-pod casing. The physically bold name of the fragrance, in2u, is written in shorthand in an instant message. It is supposed to be a casual invitation to sex, being that there was no time to spell out the words into you.
Calvin Klein has always been very seductive in its approach to style and what scent or message our body gives off. He has reached men and women willing to test boundaries, and as always, sex sells. The ads, images and words, won't cause any more controversy than the Abercrombie and Fitch nearly naked sex photos of good looking models that appear on ads in stores and on the shopping bags. Abercrombie t-shirt messages have sexual connotation, but parents still buy them for their kids. Calvin Clein has hip, form fitting clothes, and its scents seeks to appeal to attract the opposite sex like its clothes that cling to our bodies.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think the envelope has been pushed when it comes to the media and sex that this new ad won't be shocking in the ways that past ads have. The amount of overt and non-subtle sexuality that we have already seen makes it boring to me now. Also, the idea of labeling a generation like that sort of offends me. According to them we're all the same, we all carry our ipods and text people to have casual sex. Interesting.
Like you said, "sex sells." I'm not surprised that they have to use sex to market to my generation. In fact if I were in their shoes, I would probably use the same ad techniques. That seemed odd that they marketed to the grunge generation back in 1994. I would connect flannel shirts and B.O. to that group. And I have to wonder the obvious. Why would you buy a fragrance based on a sexy ad? At least buy it based on the way it smells. P.S. I don't know why my blog wasn't allowing comments. I tried to figure it out. I dunno. I did get yours-thanks!
Post a Comment