Fashion designer Marc Jacobs showcases his rippling physique as the new spokesmodel for Diet Coke. Jacobs also serves as creative director for the diet drink and designed new Coke cans and bottles in honor of the brand's 30th anniversary in Europe.
“I still think it’s hysterical people want me to take my shirt off," Jacobs, 49, told WWD. "I’m going to be 50 in two months, so I guess I should be glad. It feels like the decade of me taking my shirt off.”
Marc has been photographed shirtless countless times during the past few years after undergoing a dramatic body transformation in 2006, when he began lifting weights and following a strict diet to cope with ulcerative colitis.
Shortly after embarking on his new eating and exercise program, Jacobs lost 30 pounds and transformed himself from a chubby fashion nerd to a buff fashion icon. Jacobs continues to follow an organic diet that excludes sugar, flour, dairy, caffeine and processed foods.
Not surprisingly, his self-confidence went through the roof following his jaw-dropping makeover. "When I started to feel better, and when my stomach wasn’t hurting, and when I wasn’t on the toilet all day, and when I could look at myself in the mirror, and when I went from 21 percent body fat to 5 percent body fat and I had muscle, I was like, 'This is great!'" Marc told Harper's Bazaar in 2010.
"When guys started looking at me and asking me out on dates, I felt way better about myself. So it was hard to keep my clothes on, actually. Everything changed. I cut my hair, I got contact lenses, I started to groom and get manicures and pedicures. Before, I never took care of my appearance. I was like, 'Who cares? I’m in the studio 16 hours a day, and nobody sees me.' Everything sort of changed."
The first Diet Coke cans and bottles designed by Jacobs will debut next month in 11 European markets, including the U.K., Iceland and France. Jacobs succeeds Jean-Paul Gaultier, who was the brand's creative director in 2012, and Karl Lagerfeld, who oversaw Diet Coke designs in 2011.
