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I'm lucky enough to lead what a lot of people consider a glamorous life, Milan one day, London then Los Angeles the next, it's tempting to become blasé. Because see they see world in a very fresh way. Of course, now I'm no different from the next man and I'm attracted - in the widest sense, not necessarily sexually - to younger guys. I wanted experience, I was eager to learn. When I was young, I was only attracted to older men. I can't say that into a microphone! I can't tell you because it sounds terrible. At that time everyone was branding, branding, branding.and I thought how far can branding go? It was provocative but, without wishing to sound pretentious, I like to think there's a bit of reason and intelligence behind my provocation. Another example was when I shaved a "G" in a girl's pubic hair - that was also a statement. So to me, there's always a point to provocation.
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I knew nudity's controversial, but we had to go over this sexist cliché. I believe we live in a culture that objectifies women, draping them naked over anything it wants to sell, but as soon as it's a man on show, there's a real phobia and everyone's outraged. When I decided to show a full-frontal male nude as "the face of” M7 fragrance, as well as making a direct reference to Sieff's portrait of Yves Saint Laurent naked, I was defending sexual equality.
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Having said that, I've never been into gratuitous provocation. Advertising is about making an arresting image and getting people to stop when they're flicking through a magazine, so they look at what you're telling them about, whether they're attracted or repelled by what they see. Of course I was looking to provoke, especially in my ads. But you played a lot with aggressive seduction, sex and provocation in the 90s, particularly in your advertising.