CALVIN KLEIN UNDER LEGAL SCRUTINY
By Adnews Staff
The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is launching an investigation into Calvin Klein's latest advertising campaign, aborted after critics complained it bordered on child pornography. The FBI is currently gathering information about the models in the ads, and the first thing it is determining is whether the models are under age. The North American campaign began earlier this summer using print, TV and transit created by the company's in-house agency CRK Advertising. Klein's Canadian agency, BCP in Toronto, avoided complaints north of the border by running a campaign that did not use the more controversial creative. In the U.S. the ads were pulled on Aug. 28 after Calvin Klein was lambasted by parents and child welfare groups. In one TV commercial a young male is on camera while an older man who is never seen asks him questions such as "You think you could rip that shirt off of ya?" After the male model rips off his shirt the man says, "That's a nice body . . . Do you work out?" All the ads show young men and women in suggestive poses with their underwear showing. The setting for the ads is a basement with cheap wood paneling. New York-based Calvin Klein said it has not been contacted by the Justice Department and is confident the company did not violate the law.