Series of Banned Calvin Klein ads...

The print ads

What's the name of the first male model with the curly hair?

It has a 70s or 80s gay porn vibe to it. But very creepy.

Like did any of those models make it out of that room alive?!

FFS they were all of legal age and there was no nudity.

More American prudishness.

This campaign was shot by Steven Meisel (Vogue, Madonna's Sex book, etc)

Oh noes! Adults shirtless or in their underwear!

Get my smelling salts!

I don’t think it had to do with shirtless males, that was common, look at the Marky Mark Ck ads from the 90s also. He’s in just underwear.

The issue was the guy doing the interviews. The way he’s soeaking and how creepy he comes off.

You guys are truly DUMB.

Can someone fucking tell us who the curly hair model is??

Thank you

Kate Moss is also shirtless covering her tits in the CK ad with Marky Mark. No one was outraged.

People just feel this was “creepy” and like porn interviews.

I loved Calvin's ads. These were gross. Getting off on kids that look broke and underage. A rare mistake by Calvin's team.

I remember someone saying these ads felt like the opening to snuff films.

Obviously a tribute to COCO FROM FAME!

Bijou Phillips looks like she is about 12 years old in that video. (she's the one with the short hair @2.03)

Actually she was 15, just Googled it. And the company was investigated by the FBI over those ads.

The creepy interviewer was Lou Maletta, an LGBT activist. According to Bijoux, he conducted the interviews dressed from head to foot in black leather.

Yeah. He’s creepy and you can feel that without even seeing him. Omg.

The part with “August” where he makes him rip his shirt off and comments on his body is pure creep.

Lou sounds like a Datalounger at that part.

Fiona Apple totally stole the look for her criminal video...

These were so fucking creepy

Brilliant ads. We still remember them 25 years later. Lots of pearl clutchers here.

[quote] FFS they were all of legal age

No they weren't. Look at the article at r14--one of them was fifteen.

They're creepy but intriguing, they certainly draw you in. I do love R11's comment though.

Oh I thought these were genius. And if you know anything about Meisel, something like this isn’t a shock. My favorite editorial of his riffed on airport security, where different models were being strip searched, interrogated, etc, it was SO dramatic and stylized but still reflective of the times.

This is how Calvin meets his "boyfriends"

At least they didn't have to show their tits!

Coco, you had no tits to show. Let's be honest.

This was interesting, yes, but creepy.

The models were all GREAT, especially that Italian actress... and "August" - yum... but the cringeworthy interviewer was totes gross!

I remember hearing about these ads being pulled but this is the first time that I've seen them. I love them! I think they're interesting and funny and I like how they don't shove the products down our throats. I don't find the voiceover guy creepy at all--he just sounds like an average man asking somewhat (but not really) provocative questions. Of course, since it's a man and some of the models are men, America freaks out cuz GAY GAY GAY!

No. He sounds creepy. Like a pervert.

Who is the Italian actress? I love how she’s like a big ol’ bomb of glamour dropped in the middle of these earthier model types.

Those jeans fit real good.....on you.....real good......

I agree with the earlier poster...who is the gorgeous curly haired boy in the first commercial

R9 Those ads were very controversial back in the day too.

Anyone who can't see these ads as creepy and stupidly referring to others as "prudes," clearly memorized the age of consent in every state/country.

My sister tore the print ads out of magazines and had them in a collage that covered her entire bedroom wall, along with pics of hot actors and fashion spreads. I was closeted and too scared to do the same to my wall.

R36, according to R35, your sister clearly memorized the age of consent in every state/country. Did you know that??

R37 I shall tell her!

Eat something, bubbalah!

There's one boy who isn't hideous. The jeans are ill-fitting and tacky. The vibe is rape-porn. Nothing redeeming.

The second one looks and sounds like he's still in high school.

These ads got more publicity for Calvin Klein by being banned than if they had been shown, which was the idea.

I like the last guy from Brooklyn. He looks like a rock star minus the tats and piercings.

I like the curly haired one the best. I kept laughing through the whole thing. The subjects all look like they have no idea how they got there, and the conversations mostly go nowhere.

And … [italic]MAD TV[/italic] called it!

Sex and controversy sold back t hen. It was the era of Madonna pushing boundaries of sexual imagery.

Back then the entire cast of [italic]The Brady Bunch[/italic] was still alive, R46.

[quote][R36], according to [R35], your sister clearly memorized the age of consent in every state/country. Did you know that??

I'm presuming his sister wasn't over 50 at the time which I don't doubt is the age of the people who don't find it creepy, like you.

Oh, and her knowing the age of consent wouldn't be necessary since she would've been around the same age as the people old creeps like you obsess over.

R35, don’t bother. The person you’re talking to is prob a Bill Cosby type except without the fame and fortune.

No one’s mentioning how schlubby the actual clothes are?

"Brilliant ads. We still remember them 25 years later. "

Did they move product?

I bet sales dropped. Because yeah, those ads were incredibly off-putting, like the opening of a porn movie marketed as "BI TEEN RAPE COMPILIATION 2".

I stayed up all night one weekend watching Much Music and taping the ads. They were wonderful stoke material for months.

The interviewer sounds like a rapist. It makes you feel sorry for the models.

These need to make a comeback

[quote] These need to make a comeback

Why? Don't confuse pointless with irrelevant.

I know CK ads were parodied all over the place, but I'm pretty sure these were too, at some point. SNL? In Living Color? MadTV?

It's sexual harassment, r29.

The video for the excellent Twin Shadow song "Slow" was an homage to these ads.

They were too banned and short-lived to get mainstream parodies.

Weren't these what they called "heroin chic" back in the day?

I remember them getting in trouble for glamorizing heroin and statutory rape.

[quote] I remember them getting in trouble for glamorizing heroin and statutory rape.

Can you provide a link?

[quote] Brilliant ads. We still remember them 25 years later.

Hardly a sign of success.

We all still remember the "Avoid the Noid" ads too.

This is like Seinfeld’s Kramer underwear ad episode right? Didn’t they have a greasy insinuatiing overly friendly voice for the interviewer? Not like Calvin Klein wasn’t called out for this. I’m sure Tipper Gore would’ve had something bogus to say...

Sooooo funny!! They used to be able to go down to st marks and get ANYBODY to do ANYTHING by telling them they would be a Calvin Klein model and they would fucking do it!!!

"Brilliant ads."

There's nothing "brilliant" about using sex to sell a product. you dumb cluck. It's the most unoriginal thing in the world.

For the poster asking about the first curly haired guy...

Maybe Vincent Gallo's photos for Calvin Klein were the ones accused of "heroin chic."

But the OP's ads look the same and use Kate Moss, too.

R68 Moss promoted CK underwear with Marky Mark. These are CK jeans ads.

As mentioned above, the creepiest of all CK spots

What's so creepy is the guys look like homely gay porn actors in the 70s.

These ads were based on the Old Reliable porn. I cant be the only one who remembers them . Thats why it was so controversial .

Lou was a great guy and a true perv. He was just who his voice suggests he would be. He used to host orgies in his video studio on Union Square East and 16th Street. I could NOT believe that they hired him to do those voice overs.

In the early 80's, Lou hosted a show on Manhattan Cable called Men in Films on Channel J, the public access channel. Every gay man in Manhattan instantly recognized Lou's voice in those Calvin Klein commercials. Who ever knew to pair his voice with that wood paneling understood sleaze on essential level.

[quote]There's nothing "brilliant" about using sex to sell a product. you dumb cluck. It's the most unoriginal thing in the world.

But it used daily, globally and it most certainly does sell. Brilliantly.

R73 Lou Maletta's obituary

[quote] Lou hosted a show on Manhattan Cable called Men in Films on Channel J, the public access channel.

That was him ?

"But it used daily, globally and it most certainly does sell. Brilliantly."

Oh, it sells alright. But there's nothing "brilliant" about using tits and ass to shill for something. It's the oldest trick out there.

Calvin Klein is like Apple. Great marketing and very modern in its approach.

They recently had the #MyCalvins campaign which tricked millions of dumb wannabe models into giving CK free advertising on social media in promise of offering modeling contracts.

R15's Lou Maletta. I know he used to have sex parties on the west side in the late 90's and 2000's, but I swear I think he also had a place in the late 80's / early 90's in the East Village.

I think like E. 6th street between B and C. I remember he had an ad in the paper for rooms for rent - and they were CHEAP. Like $400 or $500 a month. I went to visit and it was really grubby and something felt very off.

Apparently downstairs there was his 'art club' as he called it. He said that some of the guys that lived there helped pay the rent by working in the club. A different friend of mine had said the art club was basically a sex club with young guys in slings taking on all-comers. So - a whore house is really what it was.

It stayed with me for a long time - and that guy looks just like the guy who owned the place. So fucking creepy.

So over-hyped. I'm sure they LOVED that they were "banned". More publicity for everyone!

Holy SHIT those ads at OP's link were skeevy! I'd never seen them before, but damn -- they make my skin crawl. Definitely a pervy kiddie-porn vibe.

CK jeans were sold on filthy illicit guilt inducing sex. You had underage Brooke Shields, white trash thug Mark Wahlberg and anorexic childlike Kate Moss. And these perverted snuff film style ads.

Abercrombie and Fitch had catalogs and ads of male jailbait.

The curly-haired model Brandon Ralph passed away.

Who is that sexy long haired guy at the end?

My favorite CK model.

Sasha Mitchell in Calvin Klein. He was the main reason I watched Step By Step too.

This guy is really hot. But can't find his name either.

No more pornographic than Kardashian photo shoots and outfits, the WAP video, and everything else we're not allowed to criticize today.

[quote] No more pornographic than Kardashian photo shoots and outfits, the WAP video, and everything else we're not allowed to criticize today.

I agree. While these ads have a provocative and twisted appearance to them. They still hold aesthetic value. They was a vision behind it.

*There