Calvin Klein 'This Is Love' Pride 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of Calvin Klein ‘This Is Love’ Pride 2024 Ad Campaign by Photographer & Director Gordon von Steiner with models Cara Delevingne and Jeremy Pope

Calvin Klein taps into the energy of rainbows and rhythms with a celebration of self-love for its Pride 2024 campaign.

The campaign was created in collaboration with photographer and director Gordon von Steiner, and stars an impressive pair of big talents: iconic model Cara Delevigne and actor and singer Jeremy Pope – who, in addition to working across Broadway, film, and TV, just released his first two songs as an independent recording artist.

Aside from the fact that these stars have both been vocal and confident in their queer identities and the rainbow logos, von Steiner’s portraits stay squarely within the familiar Calvin Klein practice of sensual minimalism.

It is in the short film, however, that the campaign really comes to life. Fittingly set to Crystal Waters’ iconic 90s dance hit “100% Pure Love,” the video successfully synthesizes Calvin Klein’s familiar practice of hot celebrities posing on beds in underwear with the dance energy of a queer club scene, complete with excellent voguing and rainbow strobe lights.

True, the campaign doesn’t do anything to radically challenge the status quo, and any Pride-based advertising will always have the problem on capitalizing on a marginalized identity to make money, but it’s undeniable that the campaign gets its message of the joy of self-love through in a big and bold way.