In 2014, Victoria's Secret released this advertisement for their 'Perfect Body' campaign promoting lingerie. This received a lot of backlash online as you can imagine.
The advert consists of 10 VS Angels in their underwear as the text reads 'the perfect body.' The joke is meant to be that the bra (‘body’) is the ‘perfect’ fit, but rather than this very clever play on words, however the first thing which comes to mind is the fact they are promoting this body type as being 'perfect.' Whilst this body type is not attainable for many people, it isn't diverse in terms of body type or race, and are even all similar heights.
Due to the large amount of backlash they faced for the implication that this unattainable body, they changed the title to "A body for every body" instead of "The perfect 'body.'" The initial "perfect 'body'" campaign generated a huge backlash on social media under the hashtag #iamperfect, and over 30,000 people signed the change.org petition. It promoted low-self esteem for women making them feel as though their bodies aren't attractive if they didn't look similar.
The target audience is clearly aimed at younger women who want to have this brands underwear considering they are a popular brand. However, they are always controversial as they only ever promote bodies and women similar to those seen in the advert.
It even lead to other companies mocking the advert, or showing the truth such as this from a blog 'Dear Kate' showing a wider range of bodies which are much more realistic.
The preferred reading of the text is that if they purchase the underwear that they will look and feel as beautiful as those women are. However, the negotiated reading would recognise that the advert try's to show women who are happy as though they love their new underwear however, they recognise how harmful this representation is with younger people as they are more impressionable.
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