Justin Bieber For Calvin Klein: Social Media Savvy Or Needlessly Attention-Grabbing?

He’s dated models, posed in magazines and was the face of the Adidas youth label NEO – but Justin Bieber has finally made his mark on the fashion world.

The shirtless singer has been unveiled as the new face of Calvin Klein’s global advertising campaign alongside supermodel Lara Stone.

The campaign itself might be dividing the critics, but is this actually Calvin Klein’s savviest signing yet?

Digital Impact

He may only be 20 years old but Canadian-born Justin has more than double the amount of Twitter followers than Kim Kardashian and incidentally was the number one most-tweeted about musical artist of 2014.

So it’s comes as no surprise that when it was announced that he was the new face of the brand’s Spring / Summer 2015 campaign, the web went into meltdown.

The first campaign picture that Justin shared on his Instagram page (where he has in excess of 20 million followers) received more than one million likes.

Calvin Klein and #mycalvins trended worldwide on Twitter after the announcement and the news reached the Facebook trending list too.

According to a statement, this season ‘will represent the brands’ digital focus’ with an ‘increased social presence’ to ‘amplify and create conversation’ around the campaign.

In other words, move over Kim Kardashian because Justin Bieber effectively just broke the internet.

Springboard To Success

The Calvin Klein brand has historically chosen lesser-known names to front its campaigns and, subsequently, has launched the careers of some of the world’s biggest stars.

Then-rapper Mark ‘Marky-Mark’ Wahlberg, model Kate Moss and Mr. Christian Grey himself Jamie Dornan have all found fame thanks to CK.

But does Justin Bieber really deserve to be inducted into the Calvin Klein Hall of Fame?

After all, he is already a household name (albeit more so for his tabloid exploits than his music) and he doesn’t exactly need the springboard to success.

So are they just choosing him just because controversy in itself is attention-grabbing?

Fashion Snobbery

It wouldn’t be the first time the fashion world has made a controversial decision just to make headlines.

When Kim Kardashian made the cover of US Vogue, readers slammed the decision and said they would cancel their subscription to the prestigious publishing house.

But editor Anna Wintour had the last laugh as it sold more copies than the Beyonce or Michelle Obama issues, with subscriptions amounting to more than 1.2 million copies.

In the end, Wintour even came forward to admit that the decision was based solely on the controversy factor and that the shoot itself was ‘distasteful.’

And then there’s Estee Lauder signing Kendall Jenner as the brand’s new face. Fans were quick to criticise, saying they’d never buy make-up from them again, but Estee Lauder’s numbers rose immediately after the announcement.

There’s no doubt that with Justin Bieber’s digital presence, the brand will divide fans and critics but we can’t predict whether it will have an impact on sales (especially considering his audience are largely pre-teen girls).

New Start

Calvin Klein’s decision to sign Bieber as their new face comes at an interesting time for the singer as 2014 was arguably his worst year yet.

He’s always had his fair share of music critics but it was his antics away from the mic that earned him the ‘pop brat’ title.

From DUIs, to throwing eggs, to police warnings, to abandoning his dog, to making a racist joke, Biebs has had one heck of a year.

So it was a brave move for one of the world’s most famous fashion houses to sign him this year.

In a statement, Bieber said that ‘this is the beginning of an exciting new year for me, personally and professionally’ - and we do kind of believe him.

Well, it couldn’t exactly get any worse. With a new album set for release this year and a high-fashion campaign under his belt, he’s certainly heading in the right direction. Should we just give him a chance?

Hot Momma

Oh and also, in case you missed it, Bieber stars in the campaign with supermodel Lara Stone.

The 31-year-old Dutch star appears topless in the snaps, draped around the Biebs as he squeezes her thigh and dazes into the distance.

Er, HELLO. Have you seen Lara Stone in this campaign? She looks smokin’ HOT.

And she gave birth to her first child with husband David Walliams less than a year ago.

She's also the eighth highest-paid model in the world and way more respected in the fashion industry than Bieber.

Some might say the attention on the 20-year-old is undeserved but if anyone’s bothered by it, it’s not Lara.

She had ‘a lot of fun shooting the campaign with Justin’, according to a statement, and spent the morning of the announcement promoting their joint campaign.

Sounds like she’s pretty cool with it to us.

Whether you’re pro or anti-Biebs, there’s no denying that Calvin Klein got what they wanted out of the campaign which was to ‘create conversations’ around the world.

We’re not sure whether that will manifest itself into boxers sales but we shall have to wait and see.

[Bieber to raise awareness of homelessness]

[Anna Wintour talks Kim K Vogue cover]