At this point, hearing the words “sexist” and “advertisement” in direct correlation with one another isn’t really a surprise. Sex sells, or so they say, and it’s usually women who bear the brunt of delivering the sex to be bought by men, theoretically, being used as punchlines in
Still, though, just because we’re used to things being a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s okay. Case in point–a new slew of ads from Calvin Klein. The brand just launched a campaign full of various “influencers” (models, actors, singers, etc.) with the hashtag #mycalvins that features some…weird (to say the very least) imagery. Basically, all of the men featured in the campaign are shown from some vantage point of power, while the women seem to just be there to exist things to look at. Heidi Zak, the CEO of lingerie company ThirdLove, took note of this sexism and decided to do something about it–she started a Change.org petition to have a particularly sexist billboard (which we’ll get to in a second) removed.