An Aerie Male Model Says He Had No Idea The #AerieMan Campaign Was An April Fools Joke

Last month, Aerie released what it said was its latest underwear campaign, #AerieMAN, featuring four models: Doug, Matt, Kelvin, and Devon.

The company said the campaign was a body positive approach to male underwear, and included men of different body types. But just a week after releasing the campaign — to universal praise — Aerie backtracked. It claimed AerieMAN was actually an April Fool’s Day joke all along.

For Kelvin Davis, who was featured in the shoot, the knowledge that the shoot wasn’t ~real~ was infuriating.

“I have had people in the body positivity community upset with me about this whole thing,” he told BuzzFeed. “My part and contribution to the project was 100% authentic and real.”

Davis contends that everything he said on the campaign video was “real and unscripted.” “We were asked questions about male body image and those were our responses,” he said. “Everything I said was heartfelt from a place we all can relate.”

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