The 14 advertisements of the fashion world that changed the world

(CNN) – "La publicidad refleja las costumbres y convenciones de la sociedad, pero no influye en ella", escribió la potencia de la publicidad David Ogilvy en 1982, suponiendo una clase de ética neutral para la industria que promovía.

That same year, Bruce Weber launched the advertisement starring the Brazilian athlete Tom Hintnaus who changed the face of advertising, presenting to the spectators a homoerotism unknown to the established media, and perhaps demonstrating that the legendary patriarch was wrong...Advertising can - and has done it - to change the way the world sees things.

"When we went through a bus stop, all the people by my side on the busSichy and explaining the first time he saw the advertising of Calvin Klein, in which Hintanous's sexuality was the central point.

The image was taken during the highest point of the AIDS crisis, when homosexuality was generally related not to attractiveness, but with fear: Calvin Klein's announcement by Weber was shocking, exciting and subversive...And this pointed out a new wave of fashion advertising that challenged social norms, as well as clothing sales.

Read more: Olivier Rousteing's fight for diversity

More than a fantasy

Like Emma Allwood, editor of articles about fashion in Dazed, he explained: "People like to minimize fashion advertising as a frivolous fantasy or just focus on the negative, but these are images that have power both to comment and to change ourcultural landscape ".Advertising is what dictates aspirations, and when an underlying group is promoted within that framework, the impact it can have on society's attitudes is immense.

In his 2013 essay, 'Beauty...and the Beast of Advertising '(' La Bella...and the beast of advertising '), the renowned author of Psychology of Advertising, Jean Kilbourne, said that "the ads sell much more than products.They sell values, images and concepts of success and value, love and sexuality, popularity and normality.They tell us who we are and who should be ".

By promoting diversity - sexuality, race, gender - in advertising fences that present regular images for society, advertising can make the unknown become something familiar;In addition, you can expose the world to a new normality, one that includes marginalized groups.

Realistic vision

Also in 1982, photographer Oliviero Toscani was appointed art director for Benetton Group, creating ads that viscerally confronted the audiences with images like that of a man dying of AIDS in the bed of a hospital or - apparently equally impressive -people of different ethnic identities having a good time.

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When using advertising fences that only a multimillionaire conglomerate of fashion could pay to challenge taboos, Toscani incorporated segregation and oppression matters in the mainstream in the same way that Weber did, making people turn their heads when they go through a stopof bus and establishing a visual dialogue around the unknown.

Its advertising approach offered a kind of world exposure therapy: presenting what was often hidden from the media and exposing it to the public eye.

"There are no shocking photos, just a shocking reality," Toscani told CNN."An image can be stronger than an army".And, through the attention that their ads created - not only for colorful sweaters and denim clothing, but also for matters related to the Gulf War, social inequality and the death penalty in the United States - presented a reality that toOften it was ignored by the world.

Nicola Formichetti, the creative director of Diesel (who spent several years collaborating with Toscani) considers that his understanding of advertising is due to the legendary rebel.

"I learned the importance of Oliviero's announcement, which we can use the space we have as a vehicle for the dissemination of a message, not only for the sale of bags and sunglasses," he explained.

A man who has put women like Winnie Harlow (whose skin is marked by vitiligo) and Jillian Mercado (a woman in a wheelchair with muscle dystrophy) in the public eye as brand icons for diesel, has promoted beauty in allIts forms.

"Doing this kind of thing is also inspiring to us," he said."For example, when we photograph Jillian, we both cry.She began to say 'you will change my life;You will put a person in a wheelchair in the advertising fences.Imagine the impact that this will have on the people who think that it is not good enough in society '".

"Using it in a campaign is as if a world brand said 'this girl is as great as the boy who is sitting by his side.'.It is about glorifying a normal thing that shows the reality where we live and can be very powerful ".

Reduce the gender gap

In 2010, Riccardo Tisci presented Lea T as the first transgender model in a fashion campaign with his Givenchy A/W11 images.Since then, Redken's face has been named...also becoming the first transgender model in a beauty campaign.

"Modeling was not something that I had originally planned or wanted," he explained."I am lucky and I am grateful to my friend Riccardo Tisci, who ventured me in the field with one of his incredible campaigns for Givenchy.Through my work, I have been trying to give a positive message for all others.I hope to succeed.I feel pride, honor and responsibility, for what I finally achieved and everything is possible ".

Read more: Riccardo Tisci's love letter of Givenchy for New York

What T and Tisci reads through the presentation of a transgender model in a hyper brilliant fashion scenario has paved the way for a new type of inclusion that has already translated into an infinitely greater visibility for a previously marginalized community (such as for exampleLaverne Cox on the cover of Time, Call Me Caitlyn, the recent cast of diversified cast at New York Fashion Week (NYFW).

The transgender model, Hari Nef, considers that the Givenchy of Lea T campaign gave rise to the "transgender turning point" during the past year, which tells us that "it was a powerful precedent...I am not sure if I would be modeling right now if it weren't for Lea T, Connie Fleming before her, and Andreja Pejic after her ".

Nef recientemente ha sido elegida como uno de los rostros de una nueva colección limitada de &OtherStories, la cual ha empleado un equipo tras bastidores conformado solamente por transgéneros junto a modelos transgénero, la serie enfrenta no solo la falta de personas transgénero frente a la cámara, sino también detrás de la misma.

"Advertising instructs," explains NEF."Advertising has the power to tell people what is beautiful, important, aspirational, and more.A diverse cast has the power to eliminate stigma, to redistribute the power and beauty to those who do not have it in the face of the majority.Representation and visibility have their own difficult policies, but inclusion aims to benefit the included ".