Lingerie brand launches massive earned media campaign on sexist Calvin Klein Billboard

You've probably heard about this by now, as it's all over social and mainstream media. Calvin Klein is in trouble over a billboard that stereotypes women being focussed on seducing men, while men are focussed on making money.

The board's down now (according to the brand's PR "as part of the planned rotation of our spring 2016 advertising campaign"), but not before this happened:

The creator of the video is Heidi Zak,  CEO of lingerie company ThirdLove. That's right, a competitor of Calvin Klein's in the underwear industry.

While Ms. Zak is justified in saying that CK's ad is awful, what's interesting is that her brand is all over that video. And her Change.Org petition, Take Down Sexist Billboard In NYC. And the hashtag, #MoreThanMyUnderwear. And, of course, all the earned media.

In short, Ms. Zak has turned anger against a major brand into a highly-effective PR campaign for her own.

It's not surprising that marketers are riding the waves of social media outrage that result from tone-deaf ad campaigns like the CK one. In a way, this is a win-win situation for both CK and ThirdLove, as both are being talked about. CK gets to keep being credibly "naughty," as they have been since the Brooke Shields days. ThirdLove gets to champion the interests of "real women." And all it took was one insulting billboard.

Media may be getting more complicated, but the marketing strategies couldn't be simpler.

Calvin Klein pushes cleavage

Oh, look! Boobs. I don't know whether I should be annoyed at the objectification of Dutch model Lara Stone's mammalian protuberances, or just sad that every lazy ad like this is starting to look like The Gap did it.

It actually makes more sense than the original...

Have you seen Zoe Saldana for Calvin Klein? It's the kind of ad they've been doing since they made Brooke Shields famous 30 years ago.



Nothing to see here, really.

But have you seen the parody by DW Diaz that's burning up the share-s-sphere?



A nice chuckle to lead into the long weekend.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, everyone!

CK QR AR FTW

My colleague Lynn sent around an interesting link yesterday. Apparently, Calvin Klein has revolutionized outdoor advertising by running a billboard in major US cities that is just one big QR code:


(Pic taken from Ottawa Citizen)

This 2-dimensional barcode, similar to the Mobio one we used on our iheartmom campaign, is read by camera phones (with the right apps) to unlock online content.

In the case of the Calvin Klein billboard, it was this "uncensored" content:



Not exactly shocking stuff, but I'm sure it will get people with the right technology to check it out. And in advertising, getting people to take the time to interact is everything these days.

As well, this mashup of two hot trends — QR and augmented reality (AR) — is newsworthy in itself. It doesn't matter if many of the people who view your ad don't have the time or hardware to view it properly. As viewers of Mad Men's new season opener are aware, innovation and guts in the marketplace generate its own PR rewards.