10/05/2021
Boy George was among those stars paying tribute to the model and sometime singer, Nick Kamen, whose appearance in a 1985 jeans commercial on ITV and Channel Four (then the only commercial channels in Britain) changed advertising and proved that male erotica could sell products. Mr Kamen sadly passed on at the age of fifty nine on Tuesday night last after a long illness with bone marrow cancer. In the iconic commercial that propelled him to superstardom, Kamen enters a fifties style laundrette and strips to his boxer shorts to wash his jeans, which are the iconic 501 type that had previously been closely associated with gay guys. Advertising and culture would never be the same again. Boy George said that Kamen was the "the most beautiful and sweetest man", a thought echoed by others who had met him during his brief career, including John Taylor of Duran Duran, Judie Tzuke, actor Ricky Simmonds, labelmate Tanita Tikaram, 90's pop icon Kavana, and DJ Gary Crowley. Great British Bake Off host Matt Lucas wrote: “If you didn’t have a crush on Nick Kamen in the 80s, you probably weren’t there. RIP”