Iconic ad campaigns

A lot of blood, sweat and tears goes into selling the dream. Persuading us to fall in love or lust with a brand involves a mixture of bright ideas, creative talent, punchy images and beautiful girls - and boys. Throw in a dash of humour, irony, art, aspiration, not to mention sex and a bit of rock ‘n\' roll and the result borders on witchcraft. Actually it isn\'t so much wicked as a bit racy and controversial. Historically, we don\'t mind being shocked if an advert can introduce us to something (cleavage-boosting Wonderbras?) or someone (Brad Pitt in Levis 501s?) fabulously new and exciting. Or can make us laugh (Victoria Beckham for Marc Jacobs) or gasp (Marky Mark in Calvins). It\'s often hard to work out why certain adverts reach out to us in the way they do, but sometimes it\'s bleedin\' obvious. Why are some so memorable? Why do some touch the zeitgeist only to fizzle out while others remain unforgettable for decades? Here, we look at top 10 campaigns that have changed the course of fashion and tickled our fancy for whatever reason.

Brooke Shields in Calvin Klein jeans

\"You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins... nothing?\" purred 15-year-old Brooke Shields in possibly the most sexually provocative advert ever. Back in tame 1981, this was comparable to that Britney-in-bunches dressed as a schoolgirl moment. An underage child-star (who had already caused controversy appearing nude in soft porn movie, Pretty Baby aged 12), going \'commando-style\', talking like a cheap slut and looking like a page from a fashion magazine - no wonder it caused an outcry. Followed by a worldwide craze for \'designer denim\' (ie, same old jeans but with Calvin Klein\'s name on the back pocket). Stunning six-foot Brooke also happened to be one of the world\'s top models. She trousered half a million for posing in tight jeans and saying things like, \"Momma said he\'s only interested in my Calvins\" and \"I\'ve got seven Calvins in my closet, and if they could talk, I\'d be ruined.\" It created a recurring theme (ie, sex sells) for this brand, which went on to become the most commercially successful designer label for three decades.

Watch Brooke Shields in the 1981 Calvin Klein advert here

Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg in Calvin Klein underwear

Calvin Klein not only came up with the first designer underwear brand (in 1982) but, a decade later, he set the fashion compass to androgyny with his iconic advertising campaign that introduced us to 18-year-old Kate Moss. Topless, wearing pants hitched up over the waistband of her jeans and no make-up, it\'s surprising we even noticed her. The unequivocal star of the ad was Mark Wahlberg. Hip hop star Marky Mark, as he was then known, was famous for stripping down to his pants, showing off his six pack and gyrating his hips and \'sugar lumps\' on stage. Bruce Weber captured it all in his moody black and white images along with what it felt like to be young and feel sexy in the \'90s. In truth, the chemistry between Moss and Wahlberg wasn\'t sizzling. \"She kind of looked like my nephew,\" he said about his co-star. \"Beautiful... but I was into women with curves.\" The adverts changed the course of fashion, ushering in grunge then \'heroin chic - Miss Moss became the figurehead for both - along with Calvin Klein fragrances and clothes.

Sophie Dahl for YSL\'s Opium perfume

This advert always reminds me of that joke about Batman catching sight of Wonder Woman gyrating suggestively on the ground. Then it turns out she is in fact being ravished by the Invisible Man! Even though they flipped the image so that Sophie Dahl was positioned kneeling with legs akimbo as opposed to lying flat on her back - starkers  - billboards featuring the voluptuous model were banned! This saucy campaign was launched in 2000, a year after Gucci group bought YSL and the mighty Tom Ford bestrode the fashion world like a colossus. His mission, to give a nod to the famous French house\'s history of sexual provocation and female liberation, put the brand back on the fashion radar. Although some argued Ford\'s YSL 2000 collection, which featured see-through frocks, could have been put to better use being worn by Dahl, who was painted white and turned into a redhead for Steven Meisel\'s Opium shoot. On wearing nothing more than jewellery and strappy heels, she says, \"I think the photograph is beautiful... it was seen as being anti-women, when in fact I think it is very empowering to women.\"

Eva Herzigova for Wonderbra

One forgets in 1994 we were so in love with our Wonderbras we wore sheer blouses (or nothing else) to show them off. The \'Hello boys\' campaign, along with pointy bra-wearing Madonna were two reasons why Eva Herzigova (\"the bouncing Czech\") wasn\'t the only one flashing her boobs. Back in the days when breast implants were considered freakish and wobbly chicken fillets cost a fortune, the wonderful, underwired Wonderbra became an essential tool for every fashion-conscious woman. This could squeeze a vital extra inch out of your cleavage giving you the right look for the times. They sold millions. The third reason was in this year, influential lads mag, Loaded, was launched which triggered a bloke-fest zeitgeist. \'Hello boys\' was the slogan dreamt up by legendary advertising exec Trevor Beattie, (who also created the cheeky FCUK campaign). And, oh boy, we fell for it. Busty blonde bombshell Eva had been a surprise late edition to the line-up of classy supermodels. It was no surprise when her top shelf looks steered her first to Guess then Wonderbra, a campaign that made her famous and halted any plans to become a serious actress.

Gucci Flora

You wouldn\'t believe the amount of work that goes into ‘selling the dream\'. Take the Gucci Flora fragrance commercial shot in Latvia over four days last July. Chris Cunningham, whose freaky art house style is considered crucially fashionable right now, directed the one-minute ad, released earlier this year. It stars the Australian rising star model Abbey Lee as a Stevie Nicks-style fairy who can command the elements. Twenty thousand fake flowers were used to get the right effect, which was done with the usual smoke and mirrors tricks and a powerful wind machine. Perhaps the best part of the ad is the soundtrack; a re-mastered version of the Donna Summer classic I Feel Love which Cunningham persuaded the \'70s icon to re-record. It\'s been one of the most popular downloads ever since. If you love the ad take a look at the YouTube movie of the making of it. Here you witness the reality of fantasy: the crew wearing silly straw hats to stave off the hot sun and flies whilst the exhausted teenage model flies around on a harness preparing for her close-up.

Watch the Flora by Gucci advert

Levi\'s 501 boys

No jeans brand came close to Levi\'s from the mid \'80s to late \'90s. Slick advertising and a great choice of male models had a lot to do with this. Kicking off with the iconic 1985 launderette commercial, where the beautiful Nick Kamen strips down to his boxers to the soundtrack of Marvin Gaye\'s I Heard It Through The Grapevine. Within one week Levi\'s sales rose by 800 per cent. Who can forget another Levi\'s pin-up, Brad Pitt\'s career-launching advert of 1991? This featured close-ups of his thighs, rippling biceps, bum and gorgeous face with its tufty beard. He played a newly released prison inmate from nowheresville, who wears only a vest until his hot Pussycat Doll-type girlfriend - who rocks up in an open top Chevvy - throws him his beaten-up Levi\'s all to the tune of T-Rex\'s 20th Century Boy. At the time British advertising was having a MadMen moment with future Hollywood directors including Ridley Scott, Alan Parker and Adrien Lynn working in London\'s Soho. John Hegarty, of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, personally cast Kamen, Brad Pitt and Paul Sculfor (1997) among others. \"My aim was to make people fall in love with the brand,\" said Hegarty. And we did, (especially Jennifer Aniston who married/dated two ex-Levis boys, Pitt and Sculfor.)

Watch the iconic Levi\'s launderette advert starring Nick Kamen

Wolford tights by Helmut Newton

In the \'80s the photographer Helmut Newton (famous for his slightly pervy nude portraits) began a long collaboration with Wolford. What followed made fashion history. No one ever expected hosiery to become quite so cutting-edge and, following Newton\'s campaigns, so lusted after as a crucial must-have item. Many of his controversial yet stylish images happen to be of stockings and of course opaque tights, Wolford\'s runaway success, which complemented the short skirts of the power suit decade. All are considered as influential and trend-setting as many images featuring, shall we say, a bit more clotheing and are constantly being referenced. In fact the photographs allowed German-born Helmut to focus on what he loved best: beautiful tall women, mostly blonde and athletic preferably with the longest legs on the planet. His campaigns were often shot with a wide-angle lens making the models look even more goddess-like. His play on light and dark shadows and stark architectural locations, usually the South of France, cemented his style. Legendary American fashion editor, Polly Mellon, made sure the photographer remained in touch with ultra-modern styling and hair and make-up of the day.

GUESS with Anna Nicole Smith

People forget Anna Nicole Smith was first famous for being the startlingly beautiful model who starred in Guess jeans campaigns in the early 1990s. In 1992 the voluptuous native Texan virtually wiped out the grunge fashion movement with her uncanny resemblance to two iconic all-American pin-ups, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield. Her \'50s starlet curves were the antithesis of the catwalk waifs of the day and were a gamble that payed off for Paul Marciano, President of Guess. He signed up the 24-year-old days after she won a Playboy Magazine cover contest. Initially he used the ads for West coast-only campaigns, encouraged by jeans sales and a media frenzy (Anna Nicole had replaced Claudia Schiffer), he made the campaign go global in fashion magazines and Anna Nicole became a star. Rewind this and the tale is less glamorous. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, Anna Nicole dropped out of school to work in a chicken shack, got pregnant, had a son and worked as a stripper. While stripping she met billionaire Howard Marshall II, age 88, the richest man in Texas. He paid for a boob job, which led to the Playboy cover. He died. She battled to claim his fortune, taking roles in low budget cleavage flicks and reality shows which hinted at her drug dependence. In 2006, her 20-year-old son died while visiting her in hospital three days after having a daughter. Smith died a year later.

Marc Jacobs with Victoria Beckham

You\'ve got to love Victoria Beckham. Despite wanting so much to be taken seriously as a fashionista, she is happy to join in with all the jibes made at her expense. Marc Jacob\'s decision to put the mother of all fashelebrities in his spring/summer 2008 campaign initially attracted fierce industry criticism. \"There was a lot of discussion about Victoria being in our ads and tons of blogs on the internet about ‘Should she or shouldn\'t she?\' ‘What\'s going on with Marc Jacobs?\' and ‘Has he lost his mind?\'\" Jacobs explained. \"We thought the funniest thing would be to show the Victoria Beckham ads that don\'t show Victoria Beckham, but just to see those legs coming out of the bag.\" Jacobs\' long-time collaborator, artsy photographer Juergen Teller is famous for his Cindy Sherman-type reality images. This equally real campaign captures the irreverent, naughty schoolboy wit of the American designer who never plays by the rulebook. VB responds as only a lady who is willing to starve herself for fashion and wear shoes, which make her bunions ache, would. \"If you can\'t get locked inside a Marc Jacobs store, then trapped inside a Marc bag has got to be the next best thing.\"

Gucci \'party in the lift\' Amber Valetta,Tom Ford, Mario Testino, Carine Roitfeld

Several factors contributed to why the Gucci campaigns of the mid-1990s impacted on fashion in the way they did. Firstly the clothes themselves: skinny velvet jeans, second-skin shirts, lace kaftans and cut-out white evening gowns by Gucci\'s creative director, Tom Ford. Also, his collaboratrice, French stylist, Carine Roitfeld, who introduced us to her glossy grunge signature. And Mario Testino\'s overtly sexual pictures, inspired by the idea of getting \"stuck in a lift\" at a party with the hippest, most happening, most beautiful people on the planet. Last but not least Amber Valetta and a bevy of male and female models. It was the first time an advertising image had more clout than fashion editorial and captured the zeitgeist in every way, clothes, photography, models, styling... The ads allowed Ford to complete his overhaul of the logo-laden Gucci brand. The new image oozed a sophisticated sex appeal, which reaped vast financial rewards for the Italian house. When Ford joined Gucci in 1990 the company was almost bankrupt. By 1999 it was worth about £3bn.