Well clearly this billboard is working very well as advertising.
Congratulations to the agency.

The worst thing for an ad, is if it is ignored, as information
overload from other ads is the problem.

Love it or hate it, this ad is attracting attention and now
press coverage. If its banned, then it will land up on utube
and elsewhere.

All free promotion for Kelvin Klein jeans.

All along, even if you hate the ad, "Kelvin Klein jeans"
imprinted into all your brains. That is all it needs really.

No doubt their sales of jeans will increase.

Yep, I'm with you on most of those examples RObert. Agreed, billboards are ugly no matter the content. However this Ad would be unsuitable (IMO) for any other advertising outlet - not only billboards.

Seeing the photo provided by Melinda Tankard Reist pretty much frames the discussion.

MTR claims to be feminist, but is closely aligned with the Catholic church and advocates against reproductive rights and all forms of outward sexual expression.

I would wager that the 40 complaints came from this pseudo feminist and 39 of her blue rinsed colleagues that she phoned.

SM
Regardless of MTR's and others' beliefs about reproductive rights this article is about the public display of a specific piece of advertising.

Reproductive rights is not the subject of this article. And the pictures I have seen of MTR and other like-authors - so far not a blue rinse between them. Mockery only makes your own argument weaker - actually you did not make an argument about the Ad at all only criticised the author about something not even raised in the article.

I suspect that the billboard has already overachieved against its original projections, and the outdoor marketing team at CK is doing a jig around the boardroom table even as we speak.

They rely on the Helen Pringles and Melinda Tankard Reists (I notice it was she who took the picture) of this world to do the bulk of their work for them. On this occasion, they have performed perfectly to plan.

Meanwhile, as R0bert hints, our own personal reactions tell us more about ourselves than we might like, at first blush, to contemplate.

It should cause us to analyse, just a little bit, why we think the way we do. Which is a good thing.

Is it offensive to me, personally? Not really. I certainly didn't read "rape" into the pictures. Those "longer lasting sex" billboards, on the other hand, that contain no pictures at all, offend me deeply.

Would I be offended if the billboard was taken down? Not really. CK took a chance and went for it, and have had more than enough mileage out of it already. And "free speech" should, quite properly, have some limits that society can agree upon, from time to time.

They will never be absolute of course, and never unanimous. But that's the interesting - and fun - part about being human.

R0bert, agreed.

Ads for all those things that you mentioned are much worse than the likes of this billboard, when you stop and think about it.

A ban on billboards and other stuff that can distract drivers would also be a damn good idea.