Calvin Klein has been known since the 1980′s to produce controversial ads, and billboards. But now there has something finally been done to limit one commercial that the designer had put out recently. Their recent ad campaign for their new perfume, Secret Obsession, features actress Eva Mendes. Many of the ads show her naked wrapped in sheets which was controversial but not surprising to see from this designer. The brand launched a commercial for the perfume with Mendes rolling around in sheets naked but the problem was that there is a nipple slip in several scenes of the video. The video below is of Bill O’Reilly discusses the video and they show clips of the actual commercial with the nudity censored.
In the video, it is obvious of the nipple showing but the brand states that this is an international commercial, and that it was not just intended for the United States. While our country is very conservative about nudity in some aspects, in Europe the feeling is not the same. Nudity in media is much more accepted and is not as negatively viewed as it is in America. After this commercial came out in America it was banned shortly after because of the nudity but it is still broadcasted in Europe and can still be found on the internet uncensored. In the news coverage by O’Reilly they compared this to the Superbowl incident years ago with Janet Jackson. I found it interesting how they fined Janet Jackson but the Supreme Court never made her actually pay the fee. If the government is going to fine someone for this, they should follow through with this otherwise what is the point.
My question about this commercial is that if brands know that nudity is strictly not publicized on TV why even bother putting this in a commercial for the United States? I also realized that this is exactly the point of the brand doing this. If it weren’t for this racy ad, broadcasters would not be talking about it and I would probably not be blogging about this issue. The goal for the company is to get attention which will have people talking about the commercial. Not many provocative things get banned in our country and this made headlines because of the nudity. This is what drives companies to put things like this in ads and commercials. If it weren’t for the nudity in this commercial, no one would pay attention to it because it’s just another ad for perfume.
