Lmao who are these models?! what was the budget, $1.5k?
It's wild how this company is so rotten in every tiny corner of their structure that they are beyond helpless at understanding what went wrong and how to fix it. It's like they exclusively focused on the backlash and waited it out, then filtered out the controversial elements and feel ready for a comeback. The way this is going to flop for them.. you want to feel a little bad, but at the same time, they're just so underserving at this point..
Times have changed and there are new factors into consideration (social media, being able to voice an opinion on their product that is visible for everyone), but the foundation of marketing for brands like this (that tap into how women view themselves, how they're viewed, level of sexualization, etc) has not. Why did they skyrocket before? because their casting emitted power, their women had established careers, all legitimized by high fashion (all of them, Adriana and Alessandra included), they were
invited for that, the show was about gathering the best of the best, it was an all-star event (e.g. Cannes 2000), and it showed lingerie that women actually desired and wanted to see themselves in. The fact that they can't get the product right to save their lives is an indication of how bad it all is. Even their partnership with a smaller, newer brand that doesn't even do lingerie and with zero history like Frankie's Bikinis, makes Frankie's Bikini's look like they're doing charity work by validating VS.. and the preview in the last page?!
.. are they really going to do a show that is still aiming for the aesthetic of a discarded Black Eyed Peas wardrobe circa 2009? what else, curls and orange tans and 'wings' with neon lights or that are 'oMg sO HeAvY I hAd tO GeT a TrAiNer fOr 6 WeEkS'..?
Their colossal mistake was getting too confident and in-your-face about the s
ex ring thing that was happening behind doors and switching the format of the show from a lineup of Bond girls (late 90s to 2003)
they had the privilege to gather, to a lineup of Miss Universe/sorority girls that giggle and cry and go on extreme diets over the 'honor' of being accepted into this beauty pageant.. they reduced their models to powerless betas whose biggest dream in life is walking in an underwear show and that is partly why, post 2017, audiences became more observant and they could not survive the scrutiny. Not revising this and in fact making it worse by using nameless models, is incomprehensible to me.. for any company in general. They didn't have to burn themselves to the ground, they just had to study their own timeline, revisit initial success and understand why audiences became and are still critical.
Their recent tea time campaign with the models that embody that Miss Universe era and that are nowhere to be found in high fashion campaigns right at this moment.. it's harmless and yet so representative of why they went down fast and why no amount of money invested on hyping a show no one misses will save them.
And for this essay on Victoria's Secret, you're welcome everyone! 🤡🤣