Advertisements are Objectifying Equality
Just so we’re clear…
Calvin Klein introduced a commercial in May.
In it, all you see is a woman in Klein products, you have another woman walk up and the two kiss. The commercial ends with a black screen with Calvin Klein printed on it in white letters.
There are no words, no explanation, no trying to promote their product. Just a heterosexual model kissing a computer generated model — also not currently marketed as a lesbian robot…
The internet was so unimpressed Calvin Klein apologized for advertisement. Even they had to acknowledge it was baiting. After all, all they did was use women, the LGBTQ rights movement, and equality for the sake of furthering their brand without doing the hard work of actually hiring a Lesbian model or being inclusive.
This trend wasn’t exactly started by the underwear brand though. We’ve all seen essentially the same thing in every store we visit nowadays. The happy looking models are now more diverse than ever. You have women advertising tech and men fashioning the latest dresses and it’s all fantastic. Inclusion, right?
Except, how many of those companies whose faces are just beginning to appeal to the wider world — wider than white people that is — have a board with not only women, but women of color…
