Fashion industry using sex to sell ad nauseam

By LaMont Jones  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/14333209.htm
(Note: images/links added by media educator Frank Baker)

Sex still sells – and it can still shock, too.

In the U.S. fashion and beauty industry, sexual imagery in advertising seems to be going in two
different directions: toward a more subtle sexiness that emphasizes the product, but also toward
the more brazen and provocative.

Sex has been used to sell fashion for decades, with brands such as Calvin Klein, Abercrombie &
Fitch and Guess among the earliest and most relentless envelope pushers. More recently,
trend-setting designer Tom Ford influenced a more homoerotic approach during his tenure at
Gucci and Yves St. Laurent.

In current ad campaigns, a few brands are testing boundaries of taste and decency like never before.
The print ad in national magazines for Unforgivable, the new men’s fragrance by Sean “Diddy” Combs,
suggests a menage a trois in the boudoir.
 

Then there is the homoeroticism of Dolce & Gabbana’s four-page ad series in recent issues
of the popular men’s magazine GQ. In February, men in suits stare at an apparently naked
man lying on the floor while a fellow nearby fiddles with his pants zipper. In the March series,
the clothes fade into the background as men pose bare-chested, pants down, hands inside underwear.

In Vogue’s March issue, Dolce & Gabbana ads feature women interacting in sexually suggestive positions.

These images are bolder than similar but more subtle homoerotic images of female models in
ads by Emporio Armani, BCBG Max Azria and Gucci. And they’re being noticed and talked about.

Evan J. Schapiro, a GQ spokesman, acknowledged that the ads are “very provocative.” Some
“appreciate the artistic value” while some criticized the ads as “over the line.”

“We take notice of all the ads that appear in our magazine. In this particular instance, we decided
that our readers could come to their own conclusions.”

A Dolce & Gabbana spokesman did not return calls.

Like Abercrombie & Fitch’s gratuitous, youth-targeted catalog nudity, the French Connection label
has branded itself with “fcuk” – an acronym for French Connection United Kingdom that’s conveniently
similar to a sexual obscenity. Recently, the brand launched a commercial that begins with two young
women arguing and ends with them kissing.

“For years in other countries, this type of thing has been widely accepted,” said Mike Gatti, executive
vice president of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a division of the National Retail Federation.

“The more skin you show, the better, sometimes. It’s about being edgy, and it’s absolutely acceptable in fashion.”

Susan Rolontz, executive vice president at The Tobe Report, a New York-based group of fashion and
retail analysts and consultants, contended that there are “no boundaries.”

“I don’t think there’s any protocol. It’s an attention-getter.”

Some see a line – with unabashed sex peddling on one side and a cleaner, more restrained
sexiness on the other.

“We’re seeing two things,” observed Constance White, eBay style director and an author and former fashion
journalist for the New York Times and Full Frontal Fashion television.

“We’re seeing people who still think that overt sex sells. And those people like Diddy and Dolce & Gabbana
because it isn’t like a new trend they’re setting – they have to push the envelope even further. Hence, we see
the homoeroticism, we see the menage a trois – an interracial one at that – to push even further. It’s interesting
because at the same time we also see people who are edgier actually going in the opposite direction. They’re
totally over that. There’s a subtle sex tease or more emphasis on clothes, like Balenciaga and Prada.”
 

Still, there is “hyper-eroticism and objectification of women” in fashion advertising, White said, and it’s
influenced by the music industry. Take, for instance, Diddy’s music background before his foray into fashion,
and a similar road taken by Baby Phat creative director Kimora Lee Simmons, estranged wife of hip-hop mogul
Russell Simmons.

“It’s no surprise that Diddy would take this road,” White said. “Kimora also comes out of that world.
She’s doing that hyper-sexuality in Baby Phat ads, even to the point of objectifying her kids, her two little girls.”

Just as telling is the current American Express campaign. After several ads featuring famous – and fully clothed – celebs such as Robert De Niro and Ellen DeGeneres, one new ad features surfer Laird Hamilton, bare-chested, while another shows voluptuous tennis sensation Venus Williams in a skimpy bathing suit.

“It’s part of the sexualization of women to sell, to move product,” said White. “We all want to be sexy, let’s face it. But we don’t want to be objectified. And that’s what a lot of these ads do. That’s what music videos do to women. If strips you of dignity, of humanity. You become this object.”