Victoria’s Secret is finding itself facing consumer backlash as parents argue that the lingerie chain’s latest ad campaign, ‘Bright Young Things’ is serving to exploit teenage girls and is in effect sexualizing them.
The ads show young slim models in slinky bikinis and slouchy sweats with racy taglines like “call me” and “feeling lucky.”
Tells one parent, Kristi Shupp-George who is trying to petition the chain to remove the line: “I don’t think I’m a prude, I just think that [Victoria’s Secret] is trying to sexualize, basically, children.”
To date Shupp-George has been albe to amass as many 4000 supporters on a petition that appeared on Change.org this week.
Told Cindy Chafian, president of The Mommy Lobby to the nydailynews: “We’re trying to encourage our daughters to be less sexually active, less promiscuous,”
“It’s not so much that [Victoria’s Secret] is targeting our daughters, but the content of the products. They’re pushing the limits a bit too much on this one.”
Victoria’s Secret for its part claims its marketing focus is on college-aged women, not young girls. They have also gone on to deny rumors it’s developing a line specifically for tweens.
“Bright Young Things” was simply “a slogan used in conjunction with the college spring break tradition,” a PINK spokesperson said.
But Chafian says the company is lying about its target audience.
“Moms are not dumb, we know who they’re marketing to,” she said, insisting the products are aimed at young teenagers.
Chafian pointed to remarks recently made by Victoria’s Secret’s chief financial officer Stuart Burgdoerfer.
“When somebody’s 15 or 16 years old, what do they want to be?” Burgdoerfer said at a conference last month, according to Bloomberg.
“They want to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college, and that’s part of the magic we do at Pink.”
Part of the magic? Or just getting exploiting an age bracket that ought to find its sexuality in due course rather than overtly publicizing and sexualizing it? Then again shouldn’t we surprised that at the end of the day a woman’s role is sometimes nothing more than a sexual surrogate waiting to be conquered and how she should seek to assert her identity? Then again Victoria’s Secret are in the business of lingerie, sexuality, and the promise of sexual empowerment, something that every young girl begins to ponder by a certain age….
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