Despite the backlash she received over the provocative commercials, the 56-year-old supermodel and actress feels that the 'campaign was extremely successful.'
- Oct 29, 2021
AceShowbiz - Brooke Shields has reflected on her controversial '80s Calvin Klein ads. Having caused quite the uproar with the provocative commercial, the supermodel admitted in a new interview that she was too "naive" back then.
The "Lipstick Jungle" alum, who starred in the brand's denim campaign when she was just 15-years-old, offered her two cents when speaking to Vogue. "I was away when they all came out, and then started hearing, 'Oh, the commercials have been banned here, and Canada won't play them,' " she recalled.
"And paparazzi and people screaming at me and screaming at my mother, 'How could you?' " the wife of screenwriter Chris Henchy further recounted. "It just struck me as so ridiculous, the whole thing."
"They take the one commercial, which is a rhetorical question," she added. "I was naive, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think it had to do with underwear, I didn't think it was sexual in nature. I would say it about my sister, 'Nobody can come between me and my sister.' "
Noting that she was "shocked" being "berated" by the public, Brooke explained that people assumed she knew the intention behind the ads, which had slogans, "What comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." She elaborated, "I think the assumption is that I was much more savvy than I ever really was."
"If they had intended on the double entendre, they didn't explain it to me. If they'd explained it to me, why? Would they have wanted me to say it differently?" she wondered. "It didn't phase me, it didn't come into my sort of psyche as it being anything overtly sexual, sexualized in any way."
Despite the backlash, Brooke felt that the "campaign was extremely successful." She continued, "I think the underwear sort of overtook the jeans, and they understood what sells and how to push the envelope. There's an appeal to it that is so undeniable, and they tapped right into it. They knew exactly what they were doing, and I think it did set the tone for decades."
