How does Calvin Klein represent women in its advertising?

How does Calvin Klein represent women in its advertising?

Calvin Klein is an underwear company, which makes it difficult to advertise without the adverts being controversial, to advertise under garments it requires for the models male or female, to be standing nude apart from the items they are advertising. But especially in the women’s adverts it can be difficult to distinguish between was is a clever and unique advert and what is a crude and sexual objectification.

Eva Mendez is a very attractive women, this is why she has been used to advertise the underwear. Like many adverts it has many connotations and with it being such a suggestive advert it will make you think in a more sexual way causing you to be drawn more to the image. I do not think Calvin Klein are representing women as sexually empowering but as ways to draw attention to something through a professional means. I think Calvin Klein have tried to make the advert as tasteful as possible but could not escape the theory ‘sex sells’. I f you start by looking at her face, she has quite an invitational and sexual face, yet her face has nothing to do with the advertising of the underwear. The next thing you can see from the advert is quite different to what we have seen from her so far, unlike what could be stereo typed for a women posing nude that could be quite frail and shy, she stands in a very powerful position. The positioning of her body and the camera angle make her looks in control of what is happening and this may appeal to the target audience. She is wearing heels, this may be looked upon as quite strange because she is wearing nothing other than underwear yet she wears heels, this is to elongate her legs and is only to make her look better.

She is made to look her best for a number of reasons, the advert is designed to appeal to both men and women, women will view it and think that because the model is wearing that particular underwear and looks good in it that it will instantly look good on them if they wear it and they will look similar to the model. Men may view the advert and think that if they bought that underwear for their partners then they would wear it and seem to look as good as Eva Mendez.

I think that Eva Mendez is made to look overtly sexual in the advert but purely for the purpose of the advert, Calvin Klein have not used her for the sake of using a half-naked woman but used as a psychological enhancement for people to buy the product. Every aspect of how she has been carefully positioned and dressed is clever even there position of her stance with her arms on her wait cause all limbs to be directing the viewer’s eyes to the underwear, Therefore I do not think that women are objectified as sexually empowered or objectified but they are simply used to create an advert in the best way possible using their best features and the same thing could happen to a male.