Fashion goes soft porn
By Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak (Forbes.com)
Updated: 2006-10-08 16:35
Recently we pointed to a barrier of taste being broken, with advertising
designed to shock viewers with unvarnished demonstrations of car crashes and
tracheotomies. Now it seems another, even more controversial bastion of taste is
being challenged--decency.
Sexuality as part of a sales pitch is nothing new, of course. But lately,
there are more and more signs that advertisers are willing to leave little to
the imagination. Edgier brands targeting younger, hipper audiences are taking
risks they weren’t prepared to take before.
Remember the Calvin Klein jeans campaign from 1995, the one in which teenaged
models were asked suggestive questions by an older, off-camera voice? Those ads
evoked widespread public indignation (including from the president, pre-Monica),
which prompted an apology from Klein himself. But not before the furor had
multiplied the value of a relatively limited media budget.
Those ads now appear tame compared to the new wave. Boundaries are being
stretched like never before.
Why the shift to more explicit material? Blame the Internet. Until recently,
advertisers depended on paid media to get eyeballs for their advertising images
or video, and paid media operates under the watchful eye of government
regulators. On the Internet, anyone who owns a Web site can become a media owner
and play largely by his or her own rules.
The Internet is also erasing the historical barriers that separated erotica
and even hardcore pornography from mainstream culture. No more seedy theaters,
shadowy stores or "discreetly wrapped" packages. Porn is now accessible any time
in the privacy of your own computer terminal, cable box or hotel room.
At the same time, porn stars are making the transition to mainstream
celebrity. Jenna Jameson is doing ads for the Adidas Group’s Adicolor line, and
now she’s preparing to launch her own fashion line, a marked transition from
infamy to fame.
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