It's no secret that the internet is unequivocally thirsty.
Every few months there's a spotlight on some guy who literally looks like he sneaked onto planet earth and social media goes crazy with infatuation.
Those who are down bad, and those who are capitalising on your down-bad-ness.
Fashion icon Calvin Klein has always been fantastic at the latter.
And in 2024, the brand revamped its marketing strategy to be even more so.
With a heavy social media focus, Calvin Klein's recent campaigns have earned the brand a place in the cultural zeitgeist. And this has only built on its legacy as a pillar of American fashion, dropping jaws worldwide in the process.
It was a moment I'll never forget. It was (NZ) summer of this year.
I was sitting on the balcony at my Waiheke Island Airbnb, mindlessly scrolling in the sun.
That's when he appeared.
When I tell you I almost spat my iced coffee...
I had just finished watching The Bear Season 2 and hadn't quite figured out if I found White's character, the lovable yet damaged Carmy, hot or not.
My mind was made up this day. I'm still unsure if I let out a 'yes chef' or not.
I mean, it's been their formula for decades.
But this one hit different.
Social media was FLOODED with reaction videos of jaws-hitting-the-floor watching the ad. Some videos were of people just staring up at the two-story billboard in SoHo.
Calvin Klein's first post of White on Instagram quickly amassed 1.8 million likes. Their preceding post, for comparison, had less than 34,000.
The ads generated $74 million in media impact value, $10.4 of which was in the first 48 hours.
Firstly, they used ingenious casting.
The appeal here was that Jeremy Allen White was not typically considered an Adonis status sex symbol. Not until these ads, at least.
It was jarring. I remember thinking, 'I did not expect that.' Of course, he is gorgeous, but he's not every-woman's classic idea of 'hunk' you would expect to see in a Calvin Klein ad.
And that's wherein lies the genius.
Relatability. We love to feel as if we salt-of-the-earth, mere mortals can be Greek gods, too.
Why do you think Jacob Elordi's CK ads didn't even come close to the level of reaction Jeremy's did?
Despite being drop-dead-gorgeous, it was too pristine. Too expected.
They created a cultural moment.
This goes beyond marketing, which at best, captures consumer attention for a few fleeting seconds by jumping on an existing trend and haphazardly attempting to make it relevant to a brand.
The greatest campaigns do more than that. They don't just ride on the coattails of cultural conversation. They drive it. Creating rather than merely responding.
Obviously, this is easier said than done.
With audiences fragmented more than ever before, it's not enough to slap a big, lovable hunk on a billboard and call it a day. It's not even enough to come up with a clever concept anymore.
