Oh that wicked, wicked Calvin Klein. He's done it again - created an ad campaign with borderline-pornographic overtones.

This time, he's served up an even bigger helping of pubescence, just in case a few innocents out there failed to grasp the sexual nuances of his previous fragrance, jeans and underwear campaigns. And this time, the cry of moral outrage has swelled so mightily that Klein pulled the multimedia campaign on Monday. Pardon me while I stifle a yawn. This is business as usual for Klein, and frankly, it's getting old.

To me, the most outrageous thing going on here is that Klein (who, by the way, is one of the most banal party conversationalists I've ever eavesdropped on) can continue to trot out the same old two-step marketing strategy: 1) Anger Joe Q. Public on purpose, and 2) amass staggering wealth on the subsequent tide of public indignation.

Calvin, I never thought I'd say this, but you're boring us. The print-ad sequence includes a large foldout image of a slack-jawed, Lolitalike sylph sprawled on the floor, legs akimbo, with her white briefs peeking out from beneath her denim miniskirt (oh, and the current fashion-photography craze for women sucking on their own fingers: Gee, Paw, what could that mean?). In corresponding television commercials, young models of both genders are smugly objectified by an off-camera voice, in a setting that could be a motel-room audition for a low-budget sleaze flick.

Klein has made the disingenuous public claim that he continues "to believes in the positive message of these ads." I'll bet. The more negative ink the ads inspire, the more attractive the products will seem to their target consumers - the young.

The psychology is simple. Klein is in fact as "establishment" and as far from "alternative" as you can get: His name alone is a multimillion-dollar franchise commodity. But he positions products that are innocuous in and of themselves - e.g., cotton undies and CK One unisex cologne - as emblems of taboo, a source of appeal to "rebel" teens and "cynical" young adults.

Success in the fashion arena depends largely on one's ability to cultivate a cachet based on exclusivity and envelope-pushing. Klein has proven himself a master of that game, and his couture vision still ranks among the best. But in promoting his youth-targeted products, he's like the boy who cried wolf: Since everyone now expects his ads to create a moral stir, there's nowhere to move but backwards.

Predictability can be the kiss of death when marketing to the fickle young. Judging from the number of very un-Calvinlike "commoners" I've seen sporting CK-label T-shirts at fairgrounds and strip malls this summer, the de-Klein of the line might have already begun. Then again, a mogul as savvy as Klein may just be setting a new trend before anybody else recognizes it - the new chic of deep-fried cheese curds and belly overhang. We could be seeing him air-kiss Newt Gingrich on CNN's "Style with Elsa Klensch" any day now.

If you're one of those bent on getting Klein's goat, though, don't bother ranting about those monotonous ads. Send him a letter dripping with disdain and ennui. Suggest that his once-groundbreaking marketing vision has flown south. And the next time you go shopping for skivvies, buy Fruit of the Loom.<<