Skip to main content

The Not-so-secret Problems of Victoria Secret

Today I’m here to talk about the decline of what was once and for the moment still is a household brand name: Victoria Secret. In recent years, it has been receiving less and less positive media attention and more and more criticism. Specifically, I’ll be going into depth about why the decline of this company has to do with its advertising and nothing much more than that.
 Over recent years, Victoria Secret has suffered because of its ads, which primarily revolve around the sexualization of an individual which are typically women, because of the rise of the “Me Too” era. In todays political atmosphere, it is becoming more and more necessary to think before one acts, and also traditional ways are being thrown out in favor of new, more progressive ways. Now, while this may act in favor for some companies, this new wave is doing no favors for Victoria Secret. This is because for basically all of its existence, Victoria Secret has thrived off of objectifying women and portraying very sexual ads. The criticism has even begun to spread to its daughter company, Pink. It too has been called out for too much sexualization, especially because it relies on the same sexualization, though not to the same degree, of much younger girls than the parent company. Despite the fact that this has existed for some years now and the advertising wasn’t too different, there wasn’t pushback in the past. However, Victoria Secret is now getting criticism for the same techniques it has been employing for years.
 For example, in 2016, one of its ads got major pushback and angry customer responses, claiming that the ad was “pornography”, which was likely detrimental to the company’s image. Similarly, the company continued with its famous Angel show as it does every year. However, this year the show came about a month after the “Me Too” movement began to take full swing, and the results of this were apparent on the show. Namely, the shows ratings dropped nearly 30% from the previous year, which is just a testament to how much the atmosphere of the world has changed in such a short period of time. At that moment, Victoria Secret was just behind the times in what the people of the world wanted. Of course, this isn’t to say that Victoria Secret is some remnant of the past that’s soon to become an example of how advertising spelled doom for a company. Its ads have developed with the times and have become far tamer than they have been previously.
However, it has not lost its identity in this new era, as its ads do still rely of the sexualization of women, just in less explicit messages. There will likely always be pushback on this company as long as it employs any kind of sexualization, but this pushback will have to become something that this company will have to accept if it still wants to appeal to the largest audience. The best thing for the company to do right now is to continue as it has been: Adapting with the times, although it may be a little slow on the jump at times, but keep its own identity.
https://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-commercials-history-photos-2018-5#though-the-ads-today-have-lost-their-whispery-voices-and-cliched-lines-the-focus-is-still-on-sexiness-18

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tony Stark: Marvel's Mook

Over the past decade, Marvel Studios has become one of the most dominant forces in our society. They bring their movies into the spotlight of the world, creating some of the highest earnings the world has ever seen. Currently, every one of their movies has generated at least 500 million in the box office, save The Hulk and Captain America: The First Avenger. Because of this widespread publicity and power, Marvel holds sway over much of population, particularly younger generations. And it has taken this power well, helping racial discrimination with movies such as Black Panther as well as gender discrimination with many female heroes and Captain Marvel coming out later this year. These things are all amazing, but they are not the topic of todays blog. That honor belongs to the concepts of the Midriff and the Mook and what Marvel has done with these concepts. With the Midriff, Marvel has almost avoided the topic entirely, with no female characters jumping out as apparent Midriffs.

The Prophecies Behind Oracle

Have you ever heard of Oracle? Possibly, as it now has its name branded onto a sports arena. However, before this time, it wouldn’t be a bad guess to assume that you have never heard of Oracle before that point in time. And if you hadn’t heard of Oracle at all, well, its likely one of the biggest companies you’ve never heard of. Why? Because it’s a company that you don’t see advertising, it’s the company that helps create the advertisements you see. It’s a data mining company.             Now you may be asking yourself “What’s a data mining company?” Well, a data mining company is a company that takes your information, for example what car you bought this year, what you looked up on Google yesterday or what you watched on Netflix last month, and sells this information to companies looking to create an advertisement specialized towards you. This type of advertising is called “narrowcasting”, and it is the idea that certain ads are created with a specific demographic group in mind

Jerseys: The Hidden Jackpot in Sports

Sports and Athletics have become major parts of today’s society. From basketball to soccer, there is a large amount of sports played across the globe. Not only this, but there are many different levels of these sports, such as college and professional. Many people devote their lives to these sports, becoming involved on some level or another. But most watch from the sidelines, cheering on their favorite team, wearing a jersey or team jacket. That is the focus for today: Jersey’s. Now, everyone knows about traditional jersey marketing, like the company putting their logo on the shirt to reinforce their product or something along those lines. But what many people don’t realize is where the money goes when they buy their product. Some may believe that the money goes directly to the player, some believe the money goes to the team, but the fact of the matter is that most of the money goes to whichever company has hade a deal with that branch of the sport. In sports such as soccer, indiv