The notion that sex sells is as old as, well, sex. But the fashion industry is taking its fixation with lewdness to unprecedented heights. After sending penis necklaces down the runway, Vivienne Westwood announced that gay porn star Colby Keller will star in the brand’s Spring 2016 campaign, full frontal of course.
Lensed by Juergen Teller, the campaign finds Keller posing pants-less in the streets of Venice (see the NSFW images here), in an effort to raise awareness about damage done to the environment. “Vivienne Westwood is not only a fashion hero of mine, she’s a passionate advocate for the environment,” he said. “We all need to focus our attention on the problem of climate change, especially when our political culture fails to address the catastrophe coming.” But will viewers focus on climate change, or his naughty bits on full display?
Westwood is not the first designer to embrace this lascivious brand of marketing recently. Diesel targeted Pornhub and Grindr for its recent underwear campaign, becoming the first fashion brand ever to advertise on those adult sites. “I want to go where people are,” Diesel’s artist director, Nicola Formichetti, told i-D. “Tinder, Grindr and Pornhub might appear a little left field but it’s Diesel, we can do it, we’re not scared of these places.”
J.W.Anderson isn’t scared either. The London brand’s Mens Fall 2016 runway show was live-streamed exclusively through Grindr, a leading gay social networking app with a reputation for casual sex hookups. Creative director, Jonathan Anderson, said at the time: “Grindr is a widely used social platform that really reflects youth culture right now. At J.W.Anderson, we always look for ways to push boundaries when it comes to gender and our aesthetic. And of course the global reach of Grindr is undeniable. This is why for us, it makes perfect sense for Grindr to be the first outlet to livestream a J.W.Anderson men’s show.”
Shock value aside, the choice to embrace porn, or even sex-centric apps, is just smart business strategy. Pornhub claims that viewers watched more than 4 billion hours of adult films globally in 2015. It makes perfect sense for brands to partner with the platforms that hold our attention. And nothing keeps us glued to our computer screens like sex.
[via Dazed Digital]
