It doesn’t matter if Miley Cyrus is still a thing or not because either way, she will still be plastered on newsstands and billboards. Why? Because she’s the new face of Marc Jacobs’ 2014 advertising campaign.

It’s a big deal, almost as big as the fact that she is fully clothed and her tongue isn’t sticking out.

The ads feature Cyrus on an ominous-looking shore with two other models. She’s looking rather pouty, staring off into the distance.

While the ad does look great — it makes her look sophisticated, and Jacobs brought celebrity attention to his fabulous clothes — it looks nothing like Jacobs’ other ad campaigns, like the iconic Polaroid-esque photos he has been doing for years.

Some people might not mind the change in style, but the reason behind it has me brooding just as much as Cyrus is in the ad. Juergen Teller, the famous photographer Jacobs frequently uses for his campaigns, refused to take photos of the self-proclaimed “wrecking ball.” Rather than find a new star to be the face of his campaign, Jacobs stuck with Cyrus and used another photographer he’s worked with in the past, Stefan Beckman.

While Cyrus has been a fierce proponent for Jacobs’ line, wearing his design at the 2013 Met Gala and posing naked for his “Protect the Skin You’re In” T-shirt line, you have to wonder if she really is worth the breach in photography loyalty. Her name doesn’t exactly conjure up the image you would associate with Marc Jacobs.

She’s rougher around the edges, unpredictable and, let’s not forget, quite provocative. I would associate her more with Betsy Johnson than anyone else. When I think of Jacobs and his ads, all I can picture is whimsy. I picture Dakota Fanning standing like a porcelain doll with her mouth and eyes wide open.

Sure, Jacobs isn’t the fashion poster child of prudence. I mean, he did have an ad in which he posed for his new fragrance “Bang” with a giant prototype of the cologne bottle covering his junk. But Cyrus, who he would work with for this one fashion campaign, is just a celebrity gone wild.

Why is he so willing to give up the photographer he has been working with for decades for a celebrity who grinded up against an old man in a striped suit and often wears bear costumes?

I guess it’s hoes over photos.

While I understand the importance of choosing a star in his or her prime, it seems that using a photographer who has garnered you a lot of success would make more sense. The second most important thing to any designer, after the clothes, is how those clothes are displayed to the world. That’s done through advertisements and photography.

Jacobs’ campaigns have been popular in the past because of his work with Teller. When you see one of the ads, you know it’s Jacobs because of the styling of the photography.  It’s amazing branding. It’s instant name recognition. It’s a strong relationship between a designer and a photographer.

While Teller is continuing to work with Jacobs in the future, it has to hurt to know that Jacobs is willing to drop him for the sake of featuring a certain celebrity in his advertisements. Who’s to say that it won’t happen again in the future?

Maybe next time, Teller won’t come back.

Alexis McDonell is a sophomore magazine journalism major. Her column appears every Monday in Pulp. E-mail her at admcdone@syr.edu and follow her on Twitter at @AlexisMickD.

Published on January 26, 2014 at 10:11 pm