How one of America’s most famous illustrators brought homoerotic ads to the masses

Long before Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch, J.C. Leyendecker brought homoeroticism to Madison Avenue. “Sex sells” is one of the oldest aphorisms in advertising. But it wasn’t until the turn of the 20th century that the marketing world truly took notice of the male form. In large part, that was thanks to the work of commercial illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, whose ads were suffused with homoeroticism. Read more at NBC News.