#fashion advert

Today fashion designer Alexander Wang launched his new jeans collection Denim X. How has he chosen to advertise it? In a way he believes is new and provocative: Shirtless woman in jeans. And it does provoke, but not because it’s new, but because it’s pretty much like every other fashion campaign that came before: Semi-naked woman with a hint of actual product.

In the words of Jezebel’sJulianne Escobedo Sheperd:

“But using a naked woman doused in oil and, presumably, simulating masturbation, is a concept as old as time, and not really provocative at all, other than the dull, familiar rage-lite I feel from being force-fed a replica of areplica of a replica by Alexander Wang.”

If the product is so amazing, why use an image which is 20% product, 80% naked woman? Has the world of advertising nothing else to offer but the naked-girl-sells-product tactic?