I girlfriend of mine sent this image to me after a morning of outrage riding the rails and staring at it. I had also been seeing it everywhere and feeling quite irked but also somewhat amused at how little creativity is in the CK department. I mean, for the last ten years, have they shown anything in their ads besides underage teens in their underwear? Not to mention that one of their recent lines of lingerie has drawings of underage girls in their underwear as the pattern on the underwear. Cause that's exactly what I want on my underwear. WTF? Seriously.
But seriously, look at this ad. First of all, how old is this girl. Look closely at her face. To me, she looks about 14 or 15. Second, look at the size of her. What is with Calvin Klein and the starved models. It's like the advertising heads have mounted a campaign for well over a decade now which promotes weightism, ageism, racism, and sexism. Way to go, Calvin Klein. And really, can someone tell me how to differentiate this from kiddie porn? Some days I find the complete lack of corporate ethics so sickening. And it always makes me feel so powerless.
It's interesting, you know, when you think about it. I feel like I have so little power. For financial and environmental reasons, I usually take the TTC around Toronto. So I pay $2 a ride with tokens or almost $100 a month on a pass. I am forced to view ads which I find offensive and demeaning. When I complain about these ads, I only receive a standard response (not everyone likes all of the advertising we display, we will forward your concerns to the department which selects out ads, blah, blah, blah). I've never had a complaint I've made to a company responded to and for ads like stupid Julie's Story, you have to spend hours online just to find out what company is behind it. So basically, you just feel like you're trapped on the subway with no way to fight back (especially since I'm too chicken to be a good culture jammer and write all over the posters). I suppose I could drive more, but then I would be forced to look at these ads as they line the streets on bus shelters and billboards. It's like you just can't turn it off. And being at a university, I have ads in the elevators, ads in the bathroom stalls, ads in the libraries. I just can't take urban living. It just grinds down the soul.
CK sucks ass. Stupid Calvin "Kiddie Porn" Klein. Fuck.
No comments:
Post a Comment