Friday, July 24, 2009

The Paradox of Men's Underwear: Who Are They Really Selling To?


Perhaps more than any other clothing designer or retailer in business today, Calvin Klein has built a reputation for provocative advertisements, many of which do not even include the item that is being marketed (for example, a CK jeans print advertisement that does not depict the young, buff man in jeans, but rather in something akin to a loincloth). Thus, it comes as no surprise that CK underwear advertisements are just as, if not more, provocative. Unlike the aforementioned CK jeans advertisement, the products being marketed in the CK underwear ads are actually pictured in the ads; but the manner in which the products are depicted begs the question of towards whom, exactly, the ads are directed. Are the in-your-face, bulge-grabbing wet-bodied, sexily positioned men pictured in the advertisements meant to appeal to the average man looking to buy new underwear? It would seem that while Calvin Klein certainly employs the notion of "sex sells" in its underwear advertisements, it is somewhat paradoxical to think that such ads will appeal to their target consumer.

Calvin Klein underwear advertisements are not your everday, run-of-the-mill underwear ads. They are not the kind that you might expect to find in the circular in the Sunday paper. They are, for all intensive purposes, soft-core pornography. Take, for instance, what has become perhaps the most famous CK underwear ad: Mark Wahlberg defiantly grabbing his genital region through a pair of CK boxer briefs. The message is obvious: "Don't f**k with me." But what about a man in white boxer briefs grabbing his crotch is appealing to the average consumer of CK men's underwear? One might assume that the answer to that question is not much. Moreover, the advertisements may evoke a somewhat homoerotic response, something that advertisers have consistently tried to avoid when it comes to attracting straight men. Esquire magazine has long faced a similar issue, having to quell suspicions of the magazine's content being targeted at homosexuals. "From the moment of its inception, Esquire's founders were fearful that their magazine's interest in apparel, food, decor, and so on might make it appear to be targeted at homosexuals" (Breazeale 235). While Esquire strived to depict the female body in attractive ways in order to please its male audience and market its advertisers' products, CK underwear ads seem to take the opposite approach: picturing buff men in often skimpy underwear in order to sell those types of underwear.

It has long been documented that men and women are depicted in advertisements -- particularly print advertisements -- in startlingly different ways. Men are typically shown in very dominant roles, whereas women are shown in passive, submissive roles (Killing Us Softly 3). Calvin Klein underwear advertisements seem to fall into this generalization, as well. All of the men depicted in the ads are posed in dominant positions -- whether grabbing their crotches, participating in athletic or other masculine activities, or crossing their arms across their chests. Perhaps this message conveys the notion of male dominance and superiority that is more attractive to the typical CK men's underwear consumer than, say, the crotch-grabbing aspect. The advertisements say "You can show everyone who's boss, so long as you're doing it wearing Calvin Klein underwear."



Works Cited

Breazeale, Kenon. "Esquire Magazine and the Construction of the Male Consumer." Gender, Race, and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003. 230-243.

Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. Perf. Jean Kilbourne. 2000. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.


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