To shock or not to shock. . . !

Hello everyone at J. LaMore and thanks for letting me in to write a few words. I follow your blog on your Twitter and Facebook and you guys do a really good job!

I'm from New York and I have to join in on the controversy of fat models and I want to add a racy advertising element to the fray as well. I'm in advertising so this is a topic I know a little something about.

I'm in complete agreement with everyone in saying that Coco Rocha isn't fat and the fashion industry should just stop trying to push the envelope of skeleton thin models. But, I believe that even the designers who didn't use her don't actually believe she's fat either. That was probably a twist on the facts and the word "fat" is far more shocking and attention grabbing for a model than any other word in the dictionary. I wasn't there, of course, so I'm only speculating.

This past summer Calvin Klein tried to "shock" everyone, when he ran this racy billboard showing half naked young woman in what appears to be a threesome (or a foursome, I guess) trying to sell some jeans. I don't know who produced this ad but it got some attention but unfortunately it didn't shock anyone. Calvin Klein is a designer who seems to have reached his lowest point in sales and some say that this is a desperate act to draw some attention back to his brand. But, Calvin Klein has been running racy ads for a long time (remember Brooke Shields)and when this billboard hit Broadway, nobody cared. Ouch!

Why is it that this ad isn't shocking and a "not fat" model is? Is this the demographic of Calvin Klein? It must be because running a national ad campaign costs millions of dollars and Calvin Klein isn't stupid. However, the oldest game in town is using sex to sell just about anything and when that doesn't shock anyone anymore you need a new marketing director. Even when you throw a sexy element into your ad it still has to have a purpose.

In closing, Coco Rocha isn't fat and calling her "fat" isn't shocking. Calvin Klein tried to be shocking and didn't shock anyone.

Back to work.

Susan
New York, NY