Klein Throws In The Towel

Calvin Klein will stop running a controversial ad campaign featuring somber young models in suggestive poses.

Calvin Klein Inc. ran a full-page ad in The New York Times on Monday saying it will stop the campaign, in part because it has “been misunderstood by some.”

Child welfare advocates had condemned the ads as something akin to soft-core pornography. The ads appeared on television, in magazines and on 150 New York City buses.

A number of the photographs show young models in denim shorts that reveal their underwear, and in one, a teenage boy is wearing black nail polish.