THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING;

Calvin Klein To Withdraw Child Jean Ads


By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: August 28, 1995

The designer Calvin Klein, bowing to a castigation perhaps unmatched in almost 15 years of testing the limits of using sexuality to sell products, is withdrawing a jeans campaign that critics likened to child pornography.

The campaign, which was introduced this month, is for the line of high-priced jeans bearing Mr. Klein's name. It features teen-age models in poses that his critics contended were tasteless and suggestive.

In an advertisement today on page A5 in some editions of The New York Times, Calvin Klein Inc., Mr. Klein's company, said it had been "taken aback" by the reaction to the campaign, which was created by CRK Advertising, its in-house agency, and was shot by the fashion photographer Steven Meisel, known for sensual images like those in the Madonna book "Sex."



Because the message of the advertising "has been misunderstood by some," the Klein ad continued, the company "will cease running the remainder of this campaign as soon as possible."

No timetable was given in the ad, which repeated earlier defenses of the campaign as offering a "positive message" about "the spirit, independence and inner worth of today's young people."

Telephone calls last night to the Klein office in Manhattan seeking elaboration were answered by a man identifying himself as a security guard who said no one was available for comment. Mr. Klein's home telephone number is not published.

This is believed to be the first early end to a controversial campaign for Mr. Klein, who has played agent provocateur in pushing the boundaries of advertising since 1980, when some local television stations banned commercials in which Brooke Shields, then 15 years old, cooed: "You know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."

The abrupt withdrawal of the campaign -- scheduled to reach shoppers during the back-to-school jeans-buying season -- and all the publicity it already generated, might be seen as a ploy of Mr. Klein's to eat his cake and have it, too.

Alan Millstein, editor and publisher of the Fashion Network Report in New York, estimated that sales of Mr. Klein's jeans, manufactured under license from him, total about $100 million annually, compared with the leader in the so-called fashion jeans market, Guess?, at more than $600 million.


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