Hasta La Creative!

To date, Rob Lowe has been the only celebrity to suffer physical indignities in Grey’s DirecTV campaign making fun of cable customers. But now he can add three famous supermodels to the mix—Hannah Davis, Chrissy Teigen and Nina Agdal, all of whom are made over to look quite a bit less supermodelish to portray cable users in print ads in the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Check out the series of seven ads below.

Like the Rob Lowe TV spots, this print work comes uncomfortably close to being mean-spirited—i.e., aren’t ugly misfits just horrible? But they largely sidestep that charge because of the cartoonish execution. Plus, people tend to give props to any celeb who gamely agrees to look “ugly.” (If you actually have shy bladder, though, or if you actually are a lunch lady—Agdal’s ugly character—you might actually get pissed.)

We wrote about Snickers’s great back cover of the new Swimsuit Issue, too. And interestingly, they’re quite similar campaigns. (DirecTV’s message is, basically, “You’re not you when you have cable.”) Perhaps it’s no surprise that the two most famous campaigns that urge you to fight against uglier versions of yourself have found creative ways into this particular magazine all about perfection.

This year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue will make history by featuring a plus-size model—in its advertising, anyway.

The gorgeous model, Ashley Graham, will not be posing in the editorial content next to the Chrissy Teigens and Kate Uptons of the world but in an ad by Swimsuits For All—an online retailer for women sizes 8 through 34.

“I know my curves are sexy, and I want everyone else to know that theirs are too,” Graham says in a statement. “There is no reason to hide and every reason to flaunt. The world is ready for more curves in bikinis. Swimsuits For All helps women feel confident and sexy in swimsuits, and I am so thrilled to be a part of the #CurvesinBikinis campaign!”

For those who think she has no place being in Sports Illustrated (“With America’s obesity issues, promoting this is dangerous” reads one comment on Facebook), the size-16 model has also launched a workout video series called The Curvy Fit Club with Net-a-porter.

The Swimsuits For All was made by KraftWorks in New York, which is run by Neil Kraft, the former Calvin Klein creative director who made Marky Mark and his Calvins famous. The photograher is the famed Russell James.

This is reportedly the first time ever that a plus-size model will be seen in Sports Illustrated—much less the Swimsuit Issue—and it took buying power to get her there.

CREDITS
Client: Swimsuits For All
Agency: KraftWorks
Creative Director: Neil Kraft
Photographer: Russell James
Art Director: Karen Lee
Director of Account Strategy: Elisabeth Smith
Videographer: Brian Quist

Swimsuits for All, a popular online retailer, has recreated this year’s widely discussed Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover, but instead of the topless Chrissy Teigen, Nina Agdal, and Lily Alridge, they used plus-sized models.

 

 The tagline is “Sexy at Every Curve,” and the site says it’s goal was to “highlight the beauty in all women.”

The catalog photos, featuring plus-sized models and a plus-sized blogger, are incredible. The scenery is amazing (the shoot was in Turks & Caicos), the swimsuits are bright, and the models look like they’re having a great time. With the average woman in America wearing a size 14, it’s a smart move to market swimsuits for them in such a cool way.

“I think there needs to be more publications and campaigns so that people can say, ‘Wow, I look like these women, and they look comfortable and sexy and they’re portraying my body type,” 24-year old model Jada Sezer says in the video below.

“Not everyone has to be a stick insect and not everyone has to be big,” says model Shareefa J. “You can just be you, and that’s fine.”

I’m into it, and I hope to see more in this vein from brands this year. (Aerie, I’m still throwing you high fives.)

We all know the purpose of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is to create spank-bankable material in a format convenient for reading on the toilet. But the baseness of its purpose doesn't mean it can't be creative. On the contrary, SI continues to boldly seek new frontiers of wankspiration.

Perhaps to counterbalance the rather immovable Barbie, SI put bombshell Kate Upton on a Zero-G plane and took photos of her floating about in swimsuits. The results really are out of this world.

The whole concept is brilliant. Think about it. What is the sole enemy of big, glorious boobs? Why, gravity, of course. And in these photos, Upton laughs in the face of physics, achieving superhuman results previously available only to superheroines.

The 2014 SI swimsuit issue lands on newsstands today.

Bruce Hallett, former president of Time and Sports Illustrated, has joined Playbill Inc. as its publisher.

The company said it would make Time Inc. an independent company after a deal with Meredith Corporation fell through.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Bar Refaeli was among the cast of judges that witnessed the Walk the Walk contest, a fashion design competition aimed at inspiring the future generation designers. Other judges included Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, Robert Buckley of Lipstick Jungle and Frankie Delgado of MTV’s Bromance and The Hills at House of Blues Anaheim.

Refaeli and the star-studded panel of judges that also included Hurley founder Bob Hurley and Rosemary Brantley of OTIS College of Art and Design watched a parade of Hurley collections that had been redesigned by area high school students. The theatrical shows, which at times looked more like dance-offs, were modeled, produced and promoted entirely by student teams.

Of four competing schools, Fountain Valley High School took home top honors and a $5000 donation to its art & music program. Gahr High School won a special design challenge and could see their two original head-to-toe designs featured in a future Hurley collection.

(Source) Press