Calvin Klein Pulls Ads

Calvin Klein has changed a new ad campaign for children's underwear. The billboard showing children jumping on a sofa was to have been unveiled Thursday morning in Times Square.

But Wednesday night, the company said the entire campaign, including print ads, would be pulled and the billboards removed.

A black and white photograph of the promotion, showing two boys in briefs, was published in full-page newspaper ads Wednesday.

The company said the campaign to launch Calvin Klein underwear for kids was "intended to show children smiling, laughing and just being themselves."

But some critics said the ads went too far, even in Times Square, where advertisements often include scantily clad models promoting anything from bras to socks.

However, advertising executive Jerry Della Femina told CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen that the ad is innocent.

"[People] are upset because it's Calvin Klein," says Della Femina. "It's the equivalent of O.J. Simpson having a poster that says 'Marriage Counseling.' They would get them not for being into marriage counseling. They would get them for whatever he's guilty of."

Della Femina adds, "Calvin Klein has done edgy things. He's now... suffering for a past sin."

A 1980 Calvin Klein ad featured 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins." In the early 1990s, Klein pioneered the "heroin chic" look that made model Kate Moss a star.

But Della Femina says there is nothing in Calvin Klein poster that you would not see in ad for such other retailers as Jockey or Fruit of the Loom.

Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association said of the ads, "Whether you like it or not, you have pedophiles in society. Anything that could get them excited is detrimental, irresponsible and reckless."

But Della Femina disagrees.

"They are not reckless," he says. "Every one of your viewers has a catalog at home that has a children's underwear ad in it that looks like this. Clearly, it's not reaching pedophiles. It's reaching people buying underwear for their children."

In the end, says Della Femina, "There is an obscenity here: selling designer underwear for little kids. I wouldn't buy designer underwear for my kids. They have to settle for what I had to settle for."

Also, adds Della Femina, Calvin Klein wins -- how many more people know about the retailer's underwear designs for children because of the controversy over the now-killed ads?