Sam Salter stripped down to rainbow briefs, danced like his rent was due, and accidentally reminded the internet that Pride campaigns become significantly more effective when hot people are involved.
The dancer is front and center in Calvin Klein’s new Pride campaign, joining model and racer Jordan Rand and artist Deon Hinton to showcase a colorful collection of rainbow-gradient underwear, tanks, and enough body confidence to make the rest of us reconsider our posture.
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@calvinklein Uninhibited. Unleashed. @Sam Salter moves with Pride.
Sam Salter dances, sweats, and destroys concentration spans
Over a pulsing house track, the London-based choreographer stretches, thrashes, spins, and works up a serious sweat while modeling Calvin Klein’s limited-edition collection and embodying the campaign slogan: “every move, unleashed.” And unleashed it is.
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The campaign plays out inside a mostly empty warehouse, which is probably for safety reasons because putting this much energy and this few layers in a confined space feels like a workplace hazard. TBH, pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue have rarely looked this convincing.
Naturally, the campaign has only been out for a day and fans are already filling the comments with appreciation, admiration, and the digital equivalent of loudly dropping a fork at brunch.
“I’ve waited so long to be able to say this, but I shot for one of my favorite brands of all time. It’s finally out and I’m like just so, it’s just such a huge career highlight and I can’t believe it happened,” Sam said in a video on his Instagram Stories.
Beyond the thirst traps and carefully choreographed sweat patches, though, this campaign also lands as a pretty meaningful full-circle moment.
Back in 2020, Salter opened up about his coming-out experience as part of Calvin Klein’s abbreviated “Proud in My Calvins” campaign. He described sharing his sexuality publicly as something that “felt like two years of confusion,” before eventually finding “relief.”
“If I could talk to my fourteen year old self I would say, ‘SAMMY BOY, it’s OK to feel confused, it’s okay to be exactly how you are, you have a family that love you, you have friends that love you, just as you are,’” he added.
“‘You don’t need to suffer and cause any more confusion for yourself — just be, and be PROUD of it.’”
@calvinklein Pick your Pride. @Sam Salter wears new limited-edition Icon underwear.
Colorful Calvins and a surprisingly solid Pride campaign?
The campaign doesn’t stop with Salter. Photographer and New York-based artist Deon Hinton also joins the rollout with self-shot images featuring the Intense Power Pride Crop Muscle Tank and black Icon Cotton Stretch Pride boxer briefs — while casually reminding everyone that photography and biceps can absolutely coexist.
And here’s the thing: amid endless conversations about rainbow-washing, this campaign mostly avoids feeling like a corporation discovering Pride exists every June before disappearing into the mist on July 1.
Instead of flattening everyone into one generic rainbow aesthetic, Calvin Klein gave Salter and Hintonroom to show Pride through their own creative styles and personalities. The brand also said in a press release that it is “proud to financially support organizations serving the LGBTQIA+ community.”
@calvinklein @Deon Hinton brings Icon into focus for Pride.
So yes, there are rainbow briefs. Yes, there are abs. Yes, there is dramatic lighting. But there’s also personality — which, in the increasingly crowded world of Pride campaigns, might be the rarest thing of all. Also, respectfully: those briefs are doing a lot of work and the internet is reacting accordingly, with timelines currently overwhelmed by admiration, commentary, and extremely predictable thirst in equal measure online discourse.