Even so, Shields conceded that a more selective use of her marquee name and image is “a different approach than a lot of the marketing I’ve been a part of my whole life.”
Shields launched her own shampoo brand, Commence, last year, but has spent much of her career endorsing other brands including Wella Balsam, Foster Grant, and Colgate. She burst onto the national scene in 1980 with a series of TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans, the most indelible of which featured her saying: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”
The innuendo combined with Shields’ age—she was 16 at the time—proved too much for CBS, Shields told Stephen Colbert, which refused to air the spot.
As the decades have passed and sensibilities evolved, Shields, now 60, has won plaudits for speaking frankly about her objectification as a child star, but today she’s just as well known as an actress, mother, author, and entrepreneur.
And pet advocate.
“Animals have been such a relief to me,” she said. “I never thought I would have dogs because I traveled around so much. So to have dogs a little bit later in life? They’ve come at the right time.”