Calvin Klein 'Threesome' Billboard Raises Eyebrows (VIDEO, POLL)

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NEW YORK -- A racy Calvin Klein billboard is raising even New Yorkers' jaded eyebrows, with some passers-by saying the clothing maker crossed the line with its sexy advertisement.

The new billboard shows a young woman lying on top of a man, while kissing another man. All three models are topless. Another male model reclines on the floor with his jeans unbuttoned.

"I think it's obscene," said Rachelle Brunn, who was passing by the extremely large billboard in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood. "They always have ads that are pushing the envelope, but this one is the worst I've seen since I've been here. My biggest concern is that it gives teens the wrong idea."

But Carmen Guzman wasn't bothered by the ad. She said Americans see this kind of advertising everywhere, especially in the Big Apple.

"This is really nothing new," Guzman said.

New York-based Calvin Klein has long been known for provocative advertising. Brooke Shields famously advertised second-skin Calvin Klein jeans in 1981 when she was a teenager, while model Kate Moss has also appeared in sexy ads.

Meanwhile, tourist Jodi Baron, who was visiting New York City from Cleveland, said the billboard's location didn't matter.

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"One girl. Three guys. No shirts. It's not the best way to depict women," Baron said. "I don't care if it's New York City. I think it's really inappropriate."

Calvin Klein sells clothing and accessories, among other merchandise.

A representative for Calvin Klein declined to comment on the billboard.

Calvin Klein is owned by Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., which also owns the Bass and IZOD brands.

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Comments

[markinaz]

Boo Hoo, just think of the children...

[Pagoas]

i am very offended that they're wearing clothes. very. offended.

[Shawn Fraine]

haha spot on! Some of those guys...=)

[liviapeacock]

Uh, this is pretty PG-13 for a threesome! They all have jeans on!

[NoSillyName]

Apparently threesomes are as common as twosomes now days.

What is CK selling?

[NoSillyName]

Oh, there's another guy on the floor; guess he's taking care of himself.

[PAposter]

LOL! he's getting sloppy 3rd's, ewwwwww!

[rbndc]

Next year, the Calvin Klein ATM ad. And Amanda will be telling those who object, "move to Iran!"

[madfigs]

It's a foursome, not a threesome! People are just upset because it's one woman and three guys instead of three women around one guy.

[PAposter]

You're exactly right!

[dreadylocks]

Put this ad on a billboard in any European country, and no one would notice.
This is inappropriate? Why? Se. x is natural.
This country needs to loosen up, and get over this whole sexually repressed thing. It's not good for us.

[Whycee54]

Too much is too much. With TV, I can turn it off. I cant turn off a billboard. And you wonder why our young people are so caught up with sex. But then you don't want your children to get an honest sex education in the schools. So OK just put it on a billboard is that it?

[itsjustanillusion]

One word: DISGUSTING!!

[nightwind928]

It was put up there for the sole purpose of stirring controversy...which it did. If that was the idea, to bring the name Calvin Klein into the news, it was sucessfull. If it was to sell overpriced, yuppie assed jeans to people in a struggling economy, it probably missed the mark. Sure sex sells...but only if you can afford it. The big label retailers still don't get it. They're using the same old ad campaigns that worked in a booming economy. The history of "jeans" started witha guy named Levi Strauss, an immigrant, who used old sail cloth from abandoned ships in SanFrancisco bay to make durable work pants for gold miners and tradesmen at an affordable cost. That philosophy obviously went out with the square rigged sailing ships but most people in todays failing market still want a pair of durable jeans at an affordable cost. A pair of $15.00 Wranglers from K Mart are better quality then C K's are anymore. For a mom or dad buying clothes for a family in a household where someone has been recently laid off, a threesome is probably further down on the wish list these days.

[jobama12]

A disgrace. Imagine using sexually provocative images of painfully hot men to sell underwear to gay men. It's these sorts of scandalous images propagated by the liberal elite fashion industry that will cause Bristol Palin to have another child out of wedlock.

[Stagehnd1]

Liberal elite...HAHA..

Someone's been watching too much Fix news..

[NoSillyName]

And humor goes right over some people's heads.

[AmandaBC]

"Liberal elite...HAHA..
Someone's been watching too much Fix news.."

Sat-ire [sat-ahy-r]

-noun

the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

[PAposter]

...not to mention lowering the self-esteem of gay men.

[CeeCee]

Now that's funny!!!!!!!!!! haha!

[tb92]

Underwear for gay men will get Bristol pregnant? Wow, that's a twist I hadn't heard before!

[All4ME]

And yet, in America nobody bats an eye at giant billboards, posters, movie trailers, etc. featuring movie stars brandishing g uns.

Skin p0r n worse than g un p0r n? Discuss!

[TheArtsEffectNYC]

I 'm member of The Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company in NYC. Our company is made up of 9-12 year old girls. We create original plays/webisodes about what life is like for girls in the world.
CBS, NBC, The Huffington Post have reported on this ad---but no one has asked kids what we think---and we are the ones most affected by this billboard, right?
Our rehearsal space is near this ad and some of us go to school in the same neighborhood as this ad. We have no choice---we're forced to look at it! IT MAKES US FEEL FRUSTRATED, DISGUSTED, AND CONFUSED. This woman looks like a sex slave...each guy is getting his turn with her. What does this say to girls and boys about how women and girls should be treated in sexual relationships? We're NOT ALLOWED to buy porn until we're 18 or see RATED R movies until we're 17----SO WHY IS THIS HANGING ON HOUSTON FOR US STARE AT?
In defense of this ad, the CK spokespeople said "sex sells"! CK ads get tons attention--but who wears CK jeans?! No one I know--and girls my age buy LOTS of clothes. These ads aren't working.
We have nothing against fashion or Calvin Klein's freedom of expression. What we have a problem with is his lack of social responsibility!
SO WE'RE SPEAKING UP! Google: Arts Effect NYC Videos Blip TV. HEAR WHAT REAL GIRLS HAVE TO SAY! Thanks.

[rocko2466]

hahahaha fake 9-12 year old. Awesome.

[TheArtsEffectNYC]

i am not a fake 12 year old--I go to dalton--and I'm going into 7th grade next year. but whatever--- i guess you just assume kids can't have opinions--you must not have kids.

[futate01]

Do you know how little children care about an add like this? NOTHING, NIL, NADA... They would not even notice it because there is nothing of interest there. There are no bumble bees, no purple dinosaurs in the image. Children do not have sexual feelings thus they can not relate to sexual images, IT IS ONLY THE PARENTS REACTION THAT AFFECTS THEM. That's right -- it is YOU that screws up your kids, not images, sexual or otherwise. If you are an id!ot parent and react negatively than the children will learn to associate negative feelings with sexuality(once puberty comes into play) ruining their sexual life for as long as they live. It's YOUR reaction as a parent that affects your children, and whether you deal with anything in this world intelligently or ignorantly, is what will have the greatest impact on your kids.

After food, sex is the next most important thing to human existence. Without sex we can not procreate. Sex and food are the two things that all animals, all life forms on this earth, and in the whole freaking galaxy, share as most important to existence, yet you people treat it like a disease. Without sex life can not exist. It is not a disease it is a beautiful act of creating life. Why do you think it rewards us with such pleasure, because it is the most important thing that we can do in our lifetime(from an evolutionary pov.)

[rbndc]

Your theory is invalidated merely by saying "butt" to small kids and watching them burst out laughing... or we show passionate kissing and they groan "gross!" This is not taught to them by adult reactions.

We try to teach our children to keep their clothes on, not to let others entice them to expose themselves, some basic guidelines for social behavior.... and then this. "Why is that man pulling his pants off in public?" "Why doesn't that girl have a bra? I thought I wasn't supposed to run around the yard topless."

If posting nudie pictures in an office can land someone in a sexual harassment suit for creating a hostile workplace, what do you think this billboard does?

[futate01]

I hear the wheels a'creaking, but the watch is still na'ticking.

...try again.

[cmermaid]

Well I'm relieved that it's a guy-guy-girl threesome, and not a bunch of chicks on one guy. CK knows its audience. I would have liked to see more diversity in this ad. Does it inspire me to buy their underwear? No. Is it offensive? Not really; stop being so puritanical America!

[okeefep1]

i concur. i'm liking the boy-girl-boy combo.

[Norak]

More like boy-girl-boy-boy.

[PatA]

I have to wonder "why" he has to do this?
I don't like the ad and would have horrified if my girls, when teenagers, had seen it.
Klein is reaching. If he has to do this stuff, why doesn't he become an artist and the people who like his work could go to a gallery and see it.

[dreadylocks]

how do you know your teenage girls weren't looking at stuff like this anyway?

i suppose you told them that mas. tur. bation is wrong, too?

i hope the therapy/divorce costs don't get too high for them...

[stepintothelight]

You would be horrified to know what your teenagers "were" doing, as opposed to, what you thought they were doing!!!