Calvin Klein hasn’t produced a TV commercial for its Jeans line since the Eighties — remember those Brooke Shields ads? — but the brand will soon be back on the airwaves with a commercial that is so provocative it initially was banned from even late-night cable TV. The brand is used to this kind of attention — last year its steamy commercial with Eva Mendes for the Calvin Klein Secret Obsession fragrance was banned by network censors for its nudity and instead had to live online.
Steven Meisel shot the new Jeans commercial, which has a grainy quality and looks like it was produced in an old basement, with male and female models — including Anna Selezneva, Anna Jagodzinska and Natasha Poly — who aren’t wearing much more than their Calvins and are writhing around all over each other. The 15- and 30-second spots will initially be exclusive online at calvinkleinjeans.com, the home of the brand’s future U.S. e-commerce site, beginning Friday. The commercial will be the site’s main attraction until the completed site launches in the summer.
Calvin Klein is working on an edited version of the commercial that will air on cable, while outside the U.S., countries such as Italy, France, Spain and Germany will show the uncensored version. The print campaign, which features still shots from the commercial, will appear in March issues of magazines. The campaign will also include outdoor billboards and LED screens, with the latter version set to launch on Sunset Boulevard. Hopefully, for drivers’ sakes, the screens will show the edited version.