Shock value must be the goal of this image, one of several in Dolce & Gabbana’s multi-page layout in Esquire’s March 2006 issue. High-end fashion houses are known for pushing the limits as they compete with each other to represent the avant-garde. This scene reifies that tendency. The eye is drawn to the man’s legs with his jeans down at his knees. Another man is kneeling in front of him (only men are pictured in the layout).
That the model is shown in his underwear is an afterthought. It’s the positioning of the two men and the meaning it elicits that contribute to the sexual intensity of this ad. The ad is definitely at—if not beyond—the limits of sexual acceptability in advertising. Why would this homoerotic ad appear in a mainstream men’s magazine such as Esquire? D&G may be appealing to gay and bisexual readers, or simply conveying to heterosexuals readers that its brand is “gay chic.”
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