Culture Jam Assignment

In order to attract attention, the scale of fashion brand advertisement may be very exaggerated or inappropriate.  Calvin Klein recently had an ad that seems like encourage the suspicion of candid photography, public obscenity or even child pornography. The above advertisement is from apparel brand Clavin Klein (CK), uploaded the latest underwear ad photos on instagram, the photo seems to carry the candid point of view, bottom-up shoot of model’s underwear, causing domestic controversy. The model is 22-year-old Klara Kristen wearing Clavin Klein’s latest polka dot panties taken in a bottom-up, peeping angle with Instagram caption “Take a peek” On the web there are countless negative reviews of the photograph, although Kristen is 22 years old but her appearance in the ad seems quite immature, plus the lighting and scene made it looked like an underage girl. The most controversial part is definitely the publicity of the photo from the bottom up shoot inside the skirt, Christine’s underwear and thighs were clearly exposed. The ad line “I flash in #mycalvins” sounds like promoting indecent photography and public obscenity. Public reviews have been stated as “disgusting” and sexual means are too obvious. People commented “it is basically promoting pedophile by making her look underage”. Often fashion brand advertisement target on “sex” as their selling point, especially on lingerie products it is quite easy to misunderstand as normalizing sexual harassment. In order to stop the controversy it is better to improve advertising message and image.

I chose this advertisement because it reveals how the society sells and advertise products by using sexual implication. These are ads that you see on fashion magazine and on television everyday, a big proportion target audience are teenagers, I think it is extremely important to set restrictions on these ads that includes sexual interpretations. My newly jammed advertisement sets a total different tone then the original one. The ad line changed from “flash” to “wear” which changes the sex underline message to a acceptable daily underwear necessity message. Just by simply changing a single word deceases a lot of suspicion and underlying message. By covering majority of the underwear not only censored the inappropriate part but also increases the desire to see the new line of CK underwear as people say we don’t need to be naked to be sexy. This new advertisement invokes the original message of a really gorgeous girl always wearing the CK underwear and will look good at any angle. I have also added the age of the model a beside her name to further decrease suspicion of child pornography and pedophila. Lastly, by changing the colour theme of the to an old fashion rather than a spring flowery theme which is usually associated with sexual desires, improved the advertisement in a family/public friendly direction that is acceptable by everyone. My jammed version of the ad better portrays what the company is actually selling and a more acceptable sexy configuration. I believe it is extremely important to be aware of the ads that are seen in public since everyone have an equal chance of seeing the ad, governmental restrictions should be placed and monitor before these ads are shown to public.

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