On November 19, 1980, CBS television network banned a Calvin Klein jeans advertisement featuring a young Brooke Shields uttering the suggestive tagline, 'You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.' The ban sparked a media frenzy and significantly boosted the brand's notoriety and sales. The controversy highlighted the cultural tensions of the era, as advertising pushed the boundaries of sexual innuendo and challenged traditional notions of decency.

The Calvin Klein ad ban became a landmark moment in the culture wars, a theme that poets of the 1980s, from the New Formalists to the Language poets, engaged with in their critiques of media and consumerism. The controversy also reflected the growing power of advertising imagery, a subject that poets like John Ashbery and Kenneth Goldsmith would later explore in their work. The incident illustrated the way that denim, as a cultural symbol, could become a flashpoint for debates about sexuality, morality, and commerce.