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| The flyer shows the outline of a model's penis (circled). |
PopGoesTheNews.com Holiday shoppers flipping through a flyer for The Bay this week got a little more than they bargained for in the men's underwear section.
In one of four photos showcasing different styles of briefs, the outline of the head of the model's penis is clearly visible.
Typically, photos of men's underwear in mainstream retail catalogs and flyers are quite tame and any glimpse of genitalia is digitally erased. So, the decision to show the model's penis resting slightly to one side in his Calvin Klein briefs — as innocuous as it is — is rather bold for the 130-year-old department store chain.
The image appears in the Dec. 9-15 "Holiday Gifting" flyer for The Bay, which is owned by U.S. company NRDC Equity Partners, and was inserted into daily newspapers across Canada.
Marketing expert Daniel Bridge speculates that The Bay is being deliberately er... head-strong. "These images are scrutinized by a lot of people and heavily manipulated in post-production," he says. "Something as obvious as this would never end up in a flyer by accident." And while it's highly unusual, Bridge doesn't see anything wrong with the image. "It's going to sell a lot of underwear."
