Annabel Allen-Stevens
(Video 1: Victoria Secret ‘Perfect Body’ Advert of 2014.)
Victoria Secret, a brand created in 1977, with the vision of making ‘all things feminine and sexy’. So in was in 2014 the multi-million company started their ‘Perfect Body’ campaign, to promote the values they uphold. The tall, slender models portrayed in the adverts caused a backlash on all forms of mediums. From Youtube commenters to the #iamperfect on Twitter, society started to argue against this pre-feminist brand.
Victoria Secret was created by Roy Raymond with an attempt to abolish the stigma around men buying their significant others underwear.
In a society of post-feminism and postmodernism came a successful company with a strong ambition, and in 1982, Leslie Wexner brought out Victoria Secret’s brand and catalogues for approximately $1 million; this time with a different prospect, Wexners new intention was to spread the demographic and focus on the target audience of females. Judging from the history of Victoria’s Secret they aspired to make genders comfortable in their store whilst buying lingerie. Which is ironic considering the campaign of 2014.
Bus stop advertisement for Victoria Secret’s ‘The Perfect Body’
Figure 1: Three models stand confidently, all the same height and size. The advert itself was the disruption for society due to the slogan, ‘The Perfect “Body”‘.
Figure 2- Series of tweets describing their self-image in comparison to Victoria Secret models.
Figure 2: Shows some of the mental repercussions from the Victoria Secret adverts, each ‘tweeter’ claiming their wish to be ‘perfect’ like Victoria Secret’
(Video 2: Influence of Media on Body Image and Self Esteem)
Video 2: Shows how media can affect the younger generations, showing Victoria Secret advertisements to outline the self-esteem issues this brings to society.
Figure 3: An advertisement created as a contrast to the original Victoria Secret, ‘Perfect Body’ advert.
Figure 3: Shows how women can be of different sizes and shapes, it promotes an equality and diversity of women.
(Video 3: Youtuber’s opinion on the ‘Perfect Body’ Campaign.)
Video 3: A youtuber explains the controversy around the campaign,however contrasts it by explaining what the brand meant by ‘body’.
Video 4: Recent Victoria Secret advert; ‘Santa Baby’ realised December 2016.
Video 4: Observes the Victoria Secret models in a flirtatious manner, similar to the advert that caused so much controversy in 2014 (video 1)
Victoria Secret. The images and videos portray an overview, how Victoria Secret affected society with its campaign (figure 1 and video 1), especially for the younger generation (video 2). Observing how Victoria Secret’s advert affected others (figure 2 and video 3) there is a clear understanding that this ‘sexy’ and ‘powerful’ organisation uses unrealistic models to portray a habitus of perfection. Whilst society tries to argue this (figure3) it seems Victoria Secret just continues (video 4).