Although the world's most famous lingerie designer, Calvin Klein, left his fashion house more than ten years ago, the brand continues to pursue a "sex sells" merchandising approach.
But the brand has added something new to this method of promotion, which is a new hashtag, which it released in 2014 under the slogan of the #mycalvins campaign, which means "My Calvin underwear."
The campaign included several faces in the world of celebrities, including Canadian singer Justin Bieber, model and reality TV star Kendall Jenner and rapper Kendrick Lamar, who were asked to upload their photos in Calvin Klein underwear on their social media pages, and attach them to the phrase “I __ in Calvin underwear.” mine,” so that they can fill the void as they wish.
The campaign's goal was to take advantage of "social media celebrities" to promote the Calvin Klein brand, which has four million and 300 thousand followers on Instagram, compared to Justin Bieber, who has 64.8 million followers on his page.
- The campaign was a resounding success, as they quickly "published their pictures in Calvin Klein underwear, and their wide audience began re-enacting the same pictures and posting them on social media as well."
- Today, with the hashtag #mycalvins used more than 362,000 times, the multi-award winning campaign is considered one of the best uses of social media in the world of advertising.
- The phrase #mycalvins, or "my Calvin underwear," became popular after an advertisement in which model and actress Brooke Shields, dressed in Calvin Klein, said, "Do you know what stands between me and my Calvin underwear? Nothing."
Although many followers were outraged by Calvin Klein's bold advertisement, as Shields was only 15 years old, Klein did not care much, and continued his unique work, until controversial ads became a "tempting" staple of the brand.