Don't Buy Calvin Klein!

          Have you seen the new Calvin Klein underwear ad?  Believe me, if you have you know it.
          I have, and now I can't decide who's the worst:  the members of the Calvin Klein marketing team who developed and distributed the revolting ad, the individual from whose nasty mind the idea first slithered,

...or Calvin Klein himself, who presumably gave the image in the ad the green light, or in any case is responsible for the sort of over-sexualized - in this case, hyper-sexualized - advertisements that have become over the years the  low-slung hallmark of his brand.

       The ad, which was released last week,  is an up-the-skirt shot of a spread-legged middle-school girl (or a model who appears to be a middle school girl) in a slip.  But what makes it even more  twisted is the caption superimposed over the image of the girl that reads:  I  ___flash___  in  #my calvins.  The message being, I suppose, that it's okay because the girl was asking for it. 
       The sty of high-paid amorals who produced this pedophile's dream should be ashamed of themselves. 
       But of course, they're not, and Calvin Klein is refusing to pull the ad in spite of the storm of outraged excoriation the ad has brought down on the company, including this statement released by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation:
    Once again, Calvin Klein has used a depiction of sexual harassment or assault in its advertisements.
     The American fashion house has continued to stand by its most recent ad campaign, not-so-subtly entitled Erotica, despite the backlash over its glamorized depiction of an "up-skirting" victim. Up-skirting is a growing trend of sexual harassment where pictures are taken up a woman's skirt without her knowledge, or without her consent. Not only is this activity a crime in many states like New York, Washington, Florida, and more, but it is also a disturbing breach of privacy and public trust. By normalizing and glamorizing this sexual harassment, Calvin Klein is sending a message that the experiences of real-life victims don't matter, and that it is okay for men to treat the woman standing next to them on the metro as available pornography whenever they so choose.
     We are calling on Calvin Klein to not only remove this offensive ad, but also to suspend its Erotica advertisement campaign, and to issue an apology to victims of sexual harassment or assault everywhere.
      They say that sex sells, which was what this ad is really about - not sex, but selling.  However one truly wonders how girls and women - who are the target audience for the underwear that Calvin Klein is trying to sell - could possibly be reeled in by an image, not of a woman looking as sexy or attractive as they themselves would like to look, but of a 12-year-old girl as the sexual prey of a sick creep with a smart phone?
    Calvin Klein has crossed the line between the stuff of women's dreams to the stuff of our nightmares.
    And yet  Calvin Klein and his minions believe that this sort of ad will sell merchandise.  Perhaps they even believe that preteen girls will be brainwashed into thinking that buying then flashing their Calvin Klein underwear is a cool thing to do. 
     Girls and women of the world, let's prove Calvin Klein wrong.  Let's force him to drop that horribly offensive ad with the most effective weapon we have - our pocket books.   Maybe if Calvin Klein's profits fall as low as his company's morals, he'll get that he has nowhere to go but up.     

References
1. http://www.esquire.com/style/news/a44834/calvin-klein-klara-kristin-controversy/

2. http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/calvin-klein-fire-controversial-upskirt-underwear-ad-article-1.2634590