This Calvin Klein Ad Spoof Is Gross and Funny (and NSFW) for a Purpose

This Calvin Klein ad spoof telegraphs its lowbrow sensibilty beginning with its title: "The Skidmark." Presumably those who don't enjoy a bit of gross-out humor have left the room -- so we can now talk candidly. The black-and-white video depicts beautiful people wearing, yes, befouled undies and even includes one truly disgusting instance of real-time soiling. A tagline at the end -- "The Fashion Industry Leaves a Stain on the World" -- gives you a hint about the message the ad is intended to spread, as does a URL, pactorganic.com, that redirects to PACT's e-commerce site, which sells underwear produced with "no toxic dyes, no toxic pesticides, no sweatshops, no child labor." "PACT engaged us to expose the dark side of the fashion industry in a funny way," said Joel Jensen of creative agency Denizen, which produced the ad. "The only logical place to go was a fart joke. ... We came back with a concept for the video that had all of us on the floor laughing. ... We wanted to subvert the tropes of the fashion industry. It's a flawed industry and as PACT rightly points out, it's an industry that refuses to look at itself honestly. There is an ugly reality lurking beneath the surface and it's very easy to be distracted from that when beautiful, titillating imagery comes with the package. We wanted to undermine that very frankly. And to be honest, doing it in an immature way felt like the right way to counter and call out the self-absorbed way the fashion industry talks about itself."

This Calvin Klein Ad Spoof Is Gross and Funny (and NSFW) for a Purpose

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