When it comes to Victoria's Secret, a lingerie brand that has swept the world, "sexy" must be the first adjective that comes to mind.
However, last Thursday, after Victoria's Secret announced the latest brand spokesperson, the whole network was dumbfounded.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the new Victoria's Secret</h1>
This time, Victoria's Secret's spokesperson is no longer the sexy supermodel with bee waist and long legs, but instead 7 women who are known for their achievements rather than their figures.
They are:
Megan Rapinoe, a 35-year-old captain of the U.S. women's national soccer team who helped the United States win the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2012 London Olympic gold medal;
Gu Ailing, a 17-year-old Chinese-American freestyle skier who gave up his American citizenship to join China, is about to represent the Chinese team in the Olympic Games;
Paloma Elsesser, a 29-year-old mixed-race model and supermodel that leads the plus-size fashion trend;
Amanda de Cadenet, a 39-year-old british photographer, author and media personality named "The Most Creative Person in Business 2020";
Sudanese "refugee supermodel" Adut Akech, who has won "Best Model" for two consecutive years;
And Priyanka Chopra, a 38-year-old Indian actor and tech investor;
and Valentina Sampaio, the first transgender model to appear on the cover of Vogue's French edition.
These seven women who sparkle in their respective fields do not conform to victoria's secret aesthetic, nor are they signed as victoria's secret angels.
They formed a group called VS Collective, which will take turns advising victoria's secret brands, appear in advertising, and be responsible for Instagram promotion.
In addition, Victoria's Secret has announced that it will launch a new management team and is forming a board of directors, all but one seat, all of which will be occupied by women.
Asians, Africans, transgender people, plus-size models, refugees, athletes, social activists, these women stand together, it is simply a capital "political correctness."
Especially when they appear on victoria's secret advertisements that have always been widely criticized for gender issues such as "foul odor" and "body discrimination", they understand everything.
Martin Waters, the chief executive of Victoria's Secret, who took office in February this year, said he hopes the company will become the world's leading advocate for women's rights after the transformation.
"When the world is changing, we react too slowly," Waters says, "and what we need to understand is not what men want, but what women want." ”
It is true, but such an argument comes out of the mouth of Victoria's Secret, are women willing to pay?
Can Victoria's Secret, who grew up in male fantasies, be able to get out of the birth and succeed?
Can feminism save the twilight "angels"?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="260" > Victoria's Secret dilemma</h1>
Mention victoria's secret, a brilliant lingerie brand, to mention three men, Roy Raymond, Leslie Wexner and Ed Larzek.
One created Victoria's Secret, one redefined Victoria's Secret, and the other brought Victoria's Secret before our eyes.
In 1977, when American businessman Roy Raymond was shopping for lingerie for his wife, he found that the underwear in the store at that time was white and the style was very conservative.
From a male perspective, Roy Raymond believes that the underwear on the shelf has no beauty or attractiveness at all.
What displeased him was not only the underwear itself, but also the strange eyes of the female customers and clerks around him when he walked into the store.
Although it was an embarrassing encounter, but Stanford University MBA graduate he keenly smelled a glimmer of business opportunities, why not open a seductive style, while allowing men not to blush and walk into the bright and just to help ladies buy underwear?
Hence the Victoria's Secret.
Underwear and underwear are hung on the shelves according to the size of the yard, and matched in sets to make them look pleasing to the eye.
Gentlemen only need to walk into the store, tell the clerk what style they need, or buy it according to the size.
Coincidentally, the 1960s and 1970s were the period when the United States was experiencing its second women's liberation movement.
Wearing the bright colors and bold prints recommended by Victoria's Secret, underwear is seen as a symbol of women taking control of their own bodies and pursuing freedom.
In this way, Victoria's Secret, which only invested 80,000 US dollars, made a net profit of 500,000 US dollars in the first year.
Since the original intention is to design a brand for men, Victoria's Secret was inevitably born under the male gaze from the beginning of its establishment.
It was only later when people realized this that Victoria's Secret had been sold by its founder to the Limited Brands of well-known entrepreneur Leslie Wexner for $1 million.
Leslie Wexner (center)
At this stage, Wexner benchmarked the European luxury lingerie brand La Perla, and sought to create a luxurious-looking, but relatively affordable version of La Perla.
Based on this concept, he planned a new brand image for Victoria's Secret, positioned it as a brand loved by young girls, and concocted a mixed-Race founder story for Victoria's Secret, while laying the foundation for today's pink boudoir style.
In addition, under the planning of Wexner, the core concept of Victoria's Secret "Angel" was born - supermodel endorsements such as Heidi Cram and Terra Banks, known as "the world's most perfect carcass", wearing thongs, high heels and giant wings appeared in the advertisement.
Under his leadership, in the early 1990s, Victoria's Secret had become the nation's largest lingerie retailer, with nearly 1,000 stores in 46 states.
The first Victoria's Secret fashion show, launched by Ed Larzek in 1995, was the only thing that made Victoria's Secret a god.
Ed Lazzek, who tested the waters for the first time, arranged the Victoria's Secret debut at the Plaza Hotel, a landmark in New York, and although it was slightly rough, in an era when underwear was seen as an influence on the effect of clothing, this pure lingerie show really showed to American audiences.
It is also called the "age of the century underwear" by the American media.
In 2001, the Victoria's Secret show debuted on television, and although it received many complaints about the nudity of the models, it set a record of 12.4 million views in history.
According to media calculations, the production cost of Daxiu also rose from $120,000 in 1995 to more than 12 million in 2016, a hundredfold increase.
However, the ratings that followed never exceeded the first 12.4 million.
By 2015, victoria's secret show ratings had plummeted 30 percent, dropping to 6.59 million viewers.
In each year that followed, Victoria's Secret was refreshing its all-time low.
From the "age of the gods" created by giselle Bundson, Naomi Campbell and other supermodels, Victoria's Secret has long fallen into the low-end version of the "Internet celebrity abyss".
At the 2016 show, Victoria's Secret suddenly gathered the most talked about "KFC three sisters" at that time - Kendal Jenna, Bella Hadid and Gigi Hadid.
The topic degree is there, but the tide of ridicule that comes with the moment.
Pin Yipin "net red supermodel" group of magic dance style steps.
Let's take a look at the god Naomi and the G god wash their eyes.
The gap between Internet celebrities and supermodels is high and low.
On this strength, it can also parachute into the Victoria's Secret Show, which can only be said to be Victoria's Secret smashing its own signboard.
Xi Mengyao, who made a big heel at the big show in 2017, not only did not throw herself out of the victoria's secret stage, but also got the opportunity to skip the exam the following year and jumped to the ambassador status.
Outdated thinking, design hot eyes, even if the use of traffic squeezes out the real supermodel, Victoria's Secret is difficult to stop the decline, the era of gods has long ended.
It is rumored that the British black pearl Zhuo Dan Deng was squeezed out by the three sisters of Internet celebrities in 2016
For Victoria's Secret, it took years for them to finally admit that their marketing was outdated.
During that time, their competitors had grown rapidly and full-fledged.
Among them, many of them have a poisonous vision, directly standing on the opposite side of Victoria's Secret, focusing on diversified and inclusive sizes and designs, and using "real" to create differentiated underwear brands.
Companies like Lively, founded by Michelle Cordeiro Grant, former victoria's secret director, ThirdLove, founded by two former Google executives, and Savage X Fenty, by singer Rihanna.
They either offer more diverse sizes, including for a growing number of plus-size customers, or specialize in specific product categories, such as underwire-less bras.
Even though no brand in terms of market share can shake Victoria's Secret's leading position, they give consumers more choices that Victoria's Secret does not offer.
These lingerie brands give female consumers a whole new idea – without the skinny body of 32B, without big legs and big breasts, I can be an angel and be comfortable at the same time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="262" > Victoria's Secret that was "sold cheaply"</h1>
Over the past few decades, Victoria's Secret has not only fashioned itself into a synonym for sexiness, but also defined the beauty of women through a series of "angels" with demonic figures: large breasts, large long legs, bee waist, and a thin body that seems to be malnourished.
Speaking of this, Victoria, who suddenly thought of the "façade of the first generation of women's groups", was once conservatively criticized for being "too spectacular" on the chest, and was ridiculed as "God can't put the towering collarbone and the chest on the same person at the same time", and went to do breast reduction surgery (taking out the prosthesis).
"Noble Spice Girls" Victoria Image Source: Network
Who would have thought that the aesthetic that was once considered "anti-human" has become a symbol of special objects under the hype of Victoria's Secret.
For external criticism and criticism, Victoria's Secret has been reacting quickly.
In the latest advertisement released by Victoria's Secret in 2014, 10 bee-waisted, hip-legged angels who conformed to Victoria's Secret's usual aesthetic were lined up in a row in a set of underwear, and the slogan of "The Perfect Body" was written on their bodies.
Image source: Network
At first glance there is nothing wrong with it, very Victoria's Secret.
But today is different from the past, netizens do not buy it.
For a time, there were many negative voices in the American people, accusing Victoria's Secret of hurting countless ordinary women with perfect body advertisements.
So Victoria's Secret was forced to change the slogan The Perfect Body to A Body For Every Body.
But obviously, the big legs on the poster without a trace of extra flesh are not what every girl can have.
In 2018, Victoria's Secret chief marketing director, Ed Larzek, said in an interview that Victoria's Secret's big show was a fantastic, entertaining show, so there was no need to add transgender models.
Who knows that this view has stirred up thousands of waves on the Internet.
Even Victoria's Secret's own angel supermodels, Carly Klaus and Lily Aldridge, have come out to speak out for multiple genders and criticize This practice of Victoria's Secret.
The American media also stood up and ridiculed "What era, Victoria's Secret is still doing 1999 advertising." ”
Subsequently, the Victoria's Secret official was under pressure from public opinion, so it had to issue a statement apologizing and clarifying.
Ten months later, Victoria's Secret welcomed their first transgender model, Sampaio, one of the seven spokespeople who had just announced.
However, in 2018, the ratings of the big show were only 3.27 million, less than one-third of the peak, and Victoria's Secret had to choose to stop the annual show.
In fact, in the five years from 2013 to 2018, Victoria's Secret's pretax profits fell from $1.2 billion to $460 million.
Parent company Limited Brands also lost nearly half of its market value, down 72 percent from 2015.
In 2019, Victoria's Secret boss Leslie Wexner was exposed to have a deep relationship with the sexual assault of Epstein, and then was reported by a number of models for the deep-rooted misogynistic culture within Victoria's Secret, and many negative news directly hit Victoria's Secret into the abyss.
In 2019, Victoria's Secret announced the closure of 53 stores in the United States, and in 2020, it continued to close 256 stores due to the impact of the epidemic.
In February 2020, the parent company tried to "sell" a 55% stake in Victoria's Secret to private equity firm Sycamore Partners for $550 million.
In the end, the other party applied to suspend the acquisition on the grounds that Victoria's Secret had closed a large number of stores. Victoria's Secret's "selling plan" also went bankrupt.
Victoria's Secret closed its last store in Hong Kong, China, in June 2020, less than two years after opening in July 2018.
The biggest perception of Chinese consumers for Victoria's Secret's self-help is probably to sign Zhou Dongyu as the spokesperson for Greater China, Yang Mi as the spokesperson for Asia, and launched the slogan of "sexy so".
Even if Victoria's Secret interprets "sexy so" as "in a state where nature does not cater, showing the unique charm that emanates from the inside out, this is sexy." ”
In the eyes of consumers, they still change the soup and do not change the medicine, and still peddle sexiness, which is incomprehensible to millennials, their main consumer force.
Once used "perfect body" to tell us what sexy is, now I want to use a few independent female contemporary speakers to "redefine sexiness".
Inside and out, you'll say it.
However, in today's underwear market, 9 out of 10 are emphasizing "no steel ring", "no trace", "no size", and the spokespersons are also actresses such as Liu Yuxin, Jin Jing, and Zhou Dongyu, who have nothing to do with traditional sexy wind.
However, this kind of cookie-cutter comfort underwear is relying on the strength of appearance to dissuade.
Not to mention that the big chest is really unfriendly wearable.
To put it more bluntly, many girls can buy eight or nine underwear directly according to the size of Victoria's Secret, but in the domestic popular inside and outside, Ubras and other brands, but never bought the right size.
Girls who want to find a wrap-up underwear even have to wonder if they have Stockholm Syndrome.
The whole society seems to emphasize "sexy guilty" and "sexy = charming".
The so-called "design for women" and "meeting women's needs" have long become the traffic password and shortcut to get rich for businesses.
But as a female consumer, underwear is what I just need, and what we need is underwear itself rather than your brand value.
On this basis, whether to please others or to please myself is my own choice, not a decision that the merchant can make for me.
From another perspective, there's nothing wrong with wanting to pursue political correctness, and it's true that I like good flesh.
An apple is an apple, and a banana is a banana.
When I wanted an apple, I snatched it out of my hand and rudely told me that only bananas were right.
Isn't this still disgusting consumers?
As a woman, our real needs are:
Until my needs are met, no one should try to kidnap me with political correctness or stupid trends.
Written by | Xu Meng