Rihanna for Emporio Armani

Posted on Jan 17, 2012 in Fashion

Rihanna landed herself an Armani contract, which means she gets to writhe around on a bed in her underwear for big bucks.

All cynicism aside, she looks really beautiful in these shots. We just think they’re a bit on the sleazy side.

Rihanna, Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans’ Spring/Summer Ad Campaign/photographed by Mert and Marcus Piggott.

[Photo Credit: Mert and Marcus Piggott for emporioarmani]

Tags:

Anonymous

“A BIT” on the sleazy side – whoa Nellie, that’s an understatement. Way too sleazy in my opinion. The knowing look, the crotch shot and the deliberately placed hand – erk.
- Anonymous
  
  I know, I’m soooo tired of ads like this. I teach critical thinking and always do a section on print / television ads and I’m impressed with how well my students are able at the end of the terms to cut through the crap and see ads as being far more than just selling a particular product.
  - Anonymous
    
    Good for you! I’m glad someone is looking out for the next generation!
    - Anonymous
      
      Thanks! I just came back to the thread and noticed the responses.
  - Anonymous
    
    I’m teaching a Mad Men DeCal this semester at my school (student run class) and I am going to include a critique on modern advertising in the course. It is so easy to spot the manipulative elements, but I’m not sure how many people consciously recognize and evaluate what they are viewing.
    - Anonymous
      
      What’s interesting to me is why she would choose to do this. Why this, of all the things offered to her? Why why why? Why is this who she wants to be? What are her frames of reference? Not ours, apparently.
      - Anonymous
        
        I’m thinking maybe she/her people decided it was no worse than a lot of other stuff she’s done (true), and she gets a campaign (for which she is probably being paid dumptrucks of money) with a high-end label. She doesn’t really move in that particular part of the fashion world, and maybe they’re trying to change that a little.
      - http://twitter.com/applecocola Stacy
        
        I think the context of the pictures are not what’s sleazy, Rihanna is the one who made them sleazy. If you compare the previous Armanie campaigns, even with Megan Fox, there’s a raw sexuality associated with them, but Rihanna’s pictures somehow are just…sleazy. I don’t know if this really relates to your points. I can definitely see how maybe Rihanna is trying to break through her image and prove herself as more versatile, but really honey, it’s not your scene.
    - Anonymous
      
      That sounds like a great class. If you’re familiar with the textbook _After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection_ there’s a great chapter in there called “From Rosie to Lucy.” In it, the authors talk about the reflective / manipulative hypotheses and the ways in which these work specifically in television shows. I start there and then we move into advertising.
      I can tell you from many years’ experience that the astute student will continue to be conscious of this material. I’ve had students many years later talk to me about what they learned and this is a freshman-level class. Good luck.
      - Anonymous
        
        That sounds great. Thank you!
Anonymous

Rihanna looks sleazy? How can this be?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

Its not like Rhianna is associated with the word classy. Ever. It fits her. She always gives good face.
J Dreesen

it doesn’t help that her face in the second photo looks like it belongs on a 12-year-old.
- Anonymous
  
  It’s creeping me out. My brother is 13 and he once showed me some of his classmates’ facebook pages. It is disturbing how many little girls post photos like that on their sites. I am tempted to start calling their mothers.
  - Anonymous
    
    Oy, the youth. I swear my roommates and I spent our entire senior year of college shuffling around in slippers and yelling, “GET OFF MY LAWN.”
- Anonymous
  
  Eww. I just scrolled up and you totally got that right. Yuck, yuck, yuck. And I like Rihanna!
Anonymous

There’s some serious photoshop going on on her arse in that first pic -but it is the best one of the bunch.
The second one looks like it could be someone’s facebook “I’m trying to look sexy but I’m failing” photo
The third one is forgettable
And the last one looks like a paparazzi shot after a night out clubbing. Such an angle should never be used in an ad campaign.
http://twitter.com/PhDKnitter marlie

The first and last photos are just “meh,” but she looks like she’s 13 in that second picture. Ick. She *is* beautiful, but I’m really not a fan of these photos.
Anonymous

funnily enough, the shot where’s she’s wearing the least clothing also seems the most “tasteful”… looks her age as opposed to the other “riri’s first sex tape~”… stuff.
Anonymous

*sigh* She has the most enviable figure.

I think this whole shoot reflects her aesthetic, so it works. If it had been, say, Reese Witherspoon–no, but Rihanna? Right up her alley.
Sobaika Mirza

I find these to be really beautiful – last time they had Megan Fox, and while it was a good match for brand I thought those were a skosh sleezier.
Anonymous

It seems very “Brooke Shields in Calvin Klein” to me.
- Anonymous
  
  Also, it’s kind of boring.
- Anonymous
  
  That was in a strange way more provocative but more classy (in the sense of less openly slutty)
http://blue-again.myopenid.com/ blue

I don’t see it. The “sleazy,” that is. Or rather, they don’t seem any more sleazy then your typical photo shoots of female celebrities.
Anonymous

The open legged crotch shot definitely sleezy. The hands between the legs – also sleezy.
http://twitter.com/Bloodisea Barbora

Love RiRi, great hair
Anonymous

Did they photoshop in a shoulder tattoo in the third shot, or photoshop it out in the second one? Consistency, people.
- Anonymous
  
  it’s probably that one shot is flipped and the tattoo is actually under her hair, because I don’t see them actually having a problem with her having a tattoo in these ads.
MilaXX

The underwear pics are very Maxim magazine looking but her look here reminds me of when she first came out and had that SOS video.
http://twitter.com/DarthJaeda Jaeda Laurez

I don’t see them as sleazy at all. Yes her legs are open in the final shot, but she’s wearing shorts, not underwear, and as far as the “hand” placement in the top shot- I really don’t see anything wrong with it. I think she looks great, but she tends to give fabulous face anyway.
Anonymous

Say what you will, but she is a beautiful woman. Though I don’t really like these photos.
Anonymous

Apart from the sleaziness level of the pictorial on its own merit, one should consider who is this girls target (i.e., I guess I would feel different if this were Posh). I think it’s teenagers, so honey, don’t. So not classy.

Have they lost creativity so much the cannot come up with a different tone for these campaigns?
Anonymous

I don’t know what it is but for some reason I’m just bored to tears with pop star sex kitten pictures. Is there nothing else to say??
http://twitter.com/delysia_lafosse Delysia LaFosse

She looks beautiful because she is beautiful, but I am so tired of seeing this same ad campaign over and over again – usually aimed at teenagers.
CQAussie

Eeek….that’s not classy at all. What was Armani thinking letting these ads be plastered everywhere? That first one with the oh so naughty hand placement was particularly off putting.
Anonymous

So many ads are like this, and I’ve never understood the appeal. It’s like you picked up a guy at a sleazy dive bar, went to some cheap pay by the hour hotel room, and let him take pictures of you with his polaroid. Who are you selling this to?

She looks good, but that’s mostly b/c she’s pretty to begin with.
Anonymous

She deserved a better wig. Armani can afford it.
- http://twitter.com/RBinTexas RBinTexas
  
  Heavens YES. That is the most comically wiggiest wig.
Anonymous

her eye makeup looks slept in. which i suppose is the point, but……….sleazy. there. i said it.
Anonymous

I am completely over the open-crotch shot. In fact, I think I have been completely over it from the beginning.

One of the minions commented the other day that it was nice when models were used to model clothes. I couldn’t agree more.
Anonymous

Wait, this is Armani?? I thought it was Guess Jeans.
- http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia
  
  I had to go back and check too!
- Anonymous
  
  as per patrick bateman: it’s emporio.
Anonymous

It’s photo shoots like these that make me glad I have sons instead of daughters.
- Anonymous
  
  Why??? It’s your sons the ads are aimed at!!
  - Anonymous
    
    No, it’s aimed at the girls they date, trying to convince said girls that to get boys, they need to look like that. Sad.
Anonymous

This photoshoot is as awful as her wig.
Anonymous

She’s such a gorgeous girl, but yeah this is tres sleazy.
Anonymous

Didn’t Calvin Klein do this about 20 years ago? I seem to recall a campaign of teenagers in front of bad wood panelling (ie; suburban basement).

–GothamTomato
- Anonymous
  
  I remember that campaign. It had weird amateur porn ick factor.
  - Anonymous
    
    Yep, that’s the one.
    
    –GothamTomato
Anonymous

Oh why do these (so-called) ladies (ie, actresses, musicians, etc) do this? (it’s a rhetorical question by the way).
http://heartprintandstyle.blogspot.com Vivi N

Rihanna and sleazy always…ALWAYS…go together. Like peanut butter and jelly.
Anonymous

I think this is less sleazy than most of what we see from Rihanna.
http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia

I wonder what those jeans look like when she is standing up? I suspect not a good fit. Rihanna has an amazing arse, but really not the shape I associate with designer skinny jeans.
butter nut

that last one actually looks disturbing
- Anonymous
  
  I agree. It’s pushing the envelope on bad taste.
Anonymous

This looks like a girl who let her boyfriend take “sexy” shots of her. And she’ll regret it the minute he starts emailing/texting/twittering them around. It doesn’t make me curious about the clothes, nor does it say “luxury brand” to me at all. Brooklyn Bomber nailed it with the Guess ad comparison.
Anonymous

She’s another one I’m tired of.
Anonymous

Armani is sleezy
Anonymous

Pretty but dang this has been done to death. Most definitely on the side of sleaze.
http://www.thechipsterdiaries.blogspot.com/ Jess

She looks so generic! I guess that’s expected for an Armani underwear campaign, but it’s kind of boring.
http://twitter.com/hpenfield Hannah Penfield

The hand placement in the first shot is terribly unfortunate.
Anonymous

Those photos look like they were taken in a sleazy motel.
Anonymous

SHE is a bit on the sleazy side. And by that I mean she IS damn sleazy. She looks like Lil Kim in these pics.
Anonymous

A bit?
Anonymous

Rihanna has always had a sleazy sensibility to me, so in that sense this is fitting. However, this is not how I think of Armani.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2ZGSQMHRCO7LAIOWG2HD74V6XU Marcie Dreyfuss

Gah. Girl’s just about as classy as her voice is.

Share This

Rihanna for Emporio Armani

Archives

Follow us

Archives