Sex sells: Why stars like David Beckham for underwear

David Beckham lies on a leather armchair wide -legged and with advanced pools, the tattooed arms hang casually over the backrests. In addition to blossom -white underpants, it does not wear anything, they flash out in the half -darkness, as well as his stamped body and the intensive look, which says without words: Baby, there is still something!

Sex Sells-the old form of advertising may no longer ignite in women’s campaigns, too often they looked sexist, but it still works flawlessly in men. At least when the protagonists are as well known as David Beckham. The 49-year-old has long been a football pensioner, but is still suitable as a sex symbol, as his latest campaign shows. He has been the face of Boss since 2024 and is now also modeling for the underwear line of the brand from Metzingen. Whether at bus stops or at house facades: Soon Germany will soon be positively with the half -naked Beckham.

It is not new that the Brit lets the brit down down. Already in 2009 he campaigned with his wife Victoria for Emporio Armani, in 2012 he started his own line at the Swedish branch chain H&M. Beckham has been considered fashionable since he shaped the concept of metrosexual man in the 1990s. At that time he showed himself with hair ribbons, designer clothes, brilli in the ear, without scratching his masculinity. The US designer Tommy Hilfiger once described him as the underpants model of the decade: “I saw all types of laundry models, but at the end of the day everyone only wants to look like David Beckham.”

The ex-soccer player is not the first prominent man who triggered a real hype in underpants and bare skin. In 1992 this probably succeeded in nobody better than Mark Wahlberg alias “Marky Mark”. The rapper campaigned for Calvin Klein – in narrow, white boxer shorts that had a wide logbery and from then on flashing out of many pants. Already in the Middle Ages, men boasted of their precious fabrics, centuries later, in the 1990s, they shaped the look of an entire generation.

At that time, not only the underpants come into focus, but also the men themselves. Unlike women who are often photographed in sexist pose and how slight prey photographed, men and superstars were staged. Strong, well -trained and bristling with self -confidence. At that time, the campaigns of Calvin Klein and Emporio Armani ensured this. Moding for these brands became the status symbol of the stars. The footballer Freddie Ljungberg got a contract with Calvin Klein, later also the US singer Justin Bieber and the “Fifty Shades of Gray” actor Jamie Dornan. Emporio Armani also relies on top athletes and committed tennis professional Rafael Nadal and football star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The fact that laundry campaigns are still in demand today was also shown in 2024: In June, 21-year-old Jude Bellingham from Real Madrid dropped his pants when he campaigned for Skim’s cotton jerseys, the fashion company of Kim Kardashian.

Calvin Klein also achieved a new scoop: the brand hired the “The Bear” actor Jeremy Allen Smith for two campaigns in spring and autumn. Since he had increased 20 kilos of muscle mass for a wrestling film, he fully fit into the brand’s prey scheme. With a steel -hard washboard belly and narrow boxer shorts, he grown over the roofs of New York, later he raged by the pool with two dogs. Each motif was shared millions of times.

With all the hysteria around all Smith, it almost went under in 2024 that another campaign by Calvin Klein was banned from Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the British counterpart to the German Advertising Council. She showed the musician FKA Twigs half -naked and only dressed with a denim shirt. The black artist looked into the camera confidently. But the ASA classifies the campaign as sexist, the young woman looks like a “stereotypical sexual object”, the focus is not on her clothes, but her half -naked body. “When I look at other past and current campaigns of this kind, I got the impression that two dimensions are measured here,” said FKA Twigs.

In fact, the case showed a still common double standards: men like all white are perceived as strong and desirable, but women like FKA Twigs, on the other hand, are provocative, sometimes also offensive and cheap. At that time, Calvin Klein also chalked up the lack of equality, but in the end the brand also benefited from being in discussion despite negative headlines.

The Beckham campaign for Boss will again be a complete success. Exactly a year after Jeremy, she appears to all White’s campaign for Calvin Klein and ties in with this hype. A similar aesthetics, a similar style. Sex sells.