Jeremy Allen White's Calvin Klein ad is bulging with appeal
Sorry, Jamie Oliver. You're no longer the hottest "naked chef."
Yesterday, like many of you all, I enjoyed my social scrolls packed (or stuffed?) with the incredibly sexy new Calvin Klein ad featuring the very fit actor Jeremy Allen White. I was like, should I share my thoughts on this gift from the ad gods with Not a Serious Life readers or should I write about how traumatized I was by January 6th? I’ve chosen the former.
I sent a link out in my morning texts to besties who reminded me of the greatness of the 1992 Marky Mark ad that skyrocketed the best looking Wahlberg into the realm of the eternally famous. The production of this spring 2024 campaign replicates that same pure sensuality but without the silliness and sans a 17-year-old Kate Moss, who had her own steamy CK moments before she was appropriately aged.
To quote my friend Randi on the new ad, “This has been my entire feed today, and I do not mind it.” She thinks it’s the best campaign she’s seen in a long time, noting that CK ads have been pretty seedy, something that’s well documented.
This ad is not gimmicky, doesn’t have a teenager in it, and it’s mesmerizing. It doesn’t try to be “cool” or something else White is probably not. What makes this and other CK ads hot is that they rely on the horniness of the act of undressing or entering a state of perpetual undress. The act is a revelation, the peeling back of a facade. It’s intimate, but also we’re just the voyeurs here in this man’s indecent rooftop exposure. And that’s a little titillating.
There’s a bit of a story here, too, like he’s compelled to leave the everyday world and enter a private space. We don’t know why, but he just needs to remove his clothing and expose his underwear and then do pull ups, stretch his arms really high up in the air, and climb a ladder. With all of that, the ad really nails “desire.”
It must be noted that The Bear star has a kinda goofy white guy face, but that’s entirely excusable here. And sadly, I have to say that the fact that he’s kind of a fucked up mess (I type that with genuine understanding) doesn’t hurt his appeal. That tormented energy comes through and it just works. It’s highlighted by Lesley Gore's “You Don't Own Me,” which is subversive, dark, but also elicits feelings of joy.
I think the world has suffered enough misery this past seven years (beginning with the 2016 election) and truly, we need more of this kind of feel-good, female and gay gaze content.
Randi rightly summarizes, “The team working on this did everything right. For him and for us.”
2024:
1992: