Justin Timberlake is doing more than just “bringing sexy back” with his racy new video for “Tunnel Vision,” a seven-minute epic featuring legions of undulating, nude models (that has already been compared to Robin Thicke’s similarly sexy “Blurred Lines”).
However, while Thicke’s video was pulled from YouTube, available only directly on VEVO, Timberlake’s equally flesh-filled clip remains on the video-sharing platform, despite rumors to the contrary.
“While our Guidelines generally prohibit nudity, we make exceptions when it is presented in an educational, documentary or artistic context, and take care to add appropriate warnings and age-restrictions,” a Google rep said Friday (July 5) with regard to why Timberlake’s video remained on the site.
Currently, when users click through to JT’s video on YouTube, they’ll be faced with an explicit content warning and asked to click through to watch via Timberlake’s VEVO channel. Thicke’s video, in contrast, cannot be found in its unrated version on YouTube proper. It can, however, be found on VEVO.
“Tunnel Vision” features Timberlake dancing languidly, as well as a bevy of nude models projected onto his face. It premiered on July 2 on Timberlake’s Myspace page and hit YouTube on July 3, where it has racked up more than a million views.
In essence, “Tunnel Vision” contains just as much nudity as “Blurred Lines,” which YouTube pulled down back in March, but the Google rep wouldn’t comment further on why Timberlake’s video proved the exception to the rule.
David Bowie’s “The Next Day” video — starring Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard — was also pulled from YouTube in March, seemingly due to violence and religious imagery. However, it was later reinstated soon after with an apology from YouTube.
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