Another attempt to sell us something we don’t want

So, here’s an aesthetic question: What is so sexy about the above H&M underwear ad? Yeah, I know, writing about David Beckham posing in his tidy-whiteys can jeopardize your position (just ask Roland Martin ). But I have no problem with the sport Beckham supposedly plays or with anybody’s sexual orientation, the way Martin’s critics assume (perhaps unfairly) he has.

My question is merely one of taste. I personally don’t find anything about Beckham’s photo remotely tantalizing, and it certainly isn’t going to lure me into spending $14.95 for a pair of underpants. Yeah, I admit I’ve never in my life had abs like that. But I stopped wearing my hair in that style long before the Vietnam War began, I have a pierced ear but not a single tattoo (while Beckham looks like “The Illustrated Man” ), and I haven’t worn white underwear since elementary school — or thereabouts.

By the way, this ad is posted on the side of a building just outside New York City’s Pennsylvania Station and is fully in view of anyone waiting for a cab — as I was on Friday night. So I had plenty of time to think about something that, had I seen it in a magazine or on TV, would have considered for about a nanosecond.

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