User:DanaBonn/sandbox

The Victoria's Secret Perfect "Body" Ad Campaign Controversy
Victoria’s Secret launched The Perfect “Body” Campaign in October 2014 to advertise a new line of lingerie, called Body. This campaign included a picture of the Victoria’s Secret angels with the slogan ‘The Perfect “Body”’, which led to widespread criticism and commentary by the public. The campaign also inspired a hash-tag on Twitter, #iamperfect, which has grown to be very popular and has gone viral around the world. Contributors to the backlash included individuals around the world, celebrities and even other companies, leading to Victoria’s Secret’s decision to change the slogan to make it less offensive to many people.

Naming and Theme
The Perfect "Body" advertising campaign was named after the Victoria's Secret new bra range, called Body, which is the reason as to why the word is placed between quotation marks in the title. This choice of wording dubs the bras to be perfect in body or form, rather than the displayed bodies of the models themselves, the latter assumption being what caused a misunderstanding and the subsequent uproar. The bra range includes bras classified as Perfect Coverage, Perfect Shape, Demi, Push-Up, Perfect Comfort, Wireless, Multi-Way, Unlined Perfect Coverage, Unlined Demi, Long Line Demi, and Racerback, each featuring a different bra "body" made to satisfy specific customer requirements, and so would be their "perfect" choice. The reworded title, A Body for Every Body featured the removal of the offending word "perfect" and an altered phrasing that promises a Victoria's Secret Body bra to a variety of bodies, ridding the campaign of the initial bias conveyed favouring one kind of ideal body, as displayed by the campaign's models. However, the sub-slogan ''Perfect Fit. Perfect Comfort. Perfectly Soft.'' was retained in order to continue emphasising the perfection of the bra range.

Ad Description
The original advertisements included ten Victoria's Secret angels standing in different poses with different sets of lingerie, each labeled respectively, with the phrase The Perfect “Body” written in large, capitalized font overlaying the women. Under this phrasing it stated, Perfect Fit, Perfect Comfort, Perfect Soft. The types of bras displayed included Long Line Demi, Racerback, Push-Up, Multi-Way, and many more. The models included in the advertisement were of mixed races, including Caucasians and African-Americans, and all had a similar body shape, which is expected of these models. The models' ribs are visible and many commented on the damaging effect this could have on women. The edited advertisements contained the same image but with a different slogan. It stated, A Body For Every Body instead of The Perfect "Body".

Media Response
The media’s response to the original campaign image was unforeseen. Many people stated that the campaign was “unhealthy” and “damaging”. Frances Black, from the Gabriella Kountourides & Laura Ferris’ Petition stated, “Victoria’s Secret’s new advertisements play on women’s insecurities, and send out a damaging message by positioning the words “The Perfect Body” across models who have exactly the same, very slim body type. This marketing campaign is harmful. It fails to celebrate the amazing diversity of women’s bodies by choosing to call only one body type ‘perfect’”.

Many people turned to Twitter to express their opinions about the campaign, and there were many negative responses about the original phrasing, including people stating that the campaign contributed to body shaming as well as promoting low self-esteem, anorexia, and bulimia, and many of the tweets demanded an apology from the Victoria’s Secret company.

Many people also responded to the campaign by posting images of women with different body types in order to celebrate the diversity of women’s shapes.

The biggest response was a petition created by British students Frances Black, Gabriella Kountourides, and Laura Ferris on the website change.org, and they garnered over 33,000 signatures in order to have the slogan changed, along with an apology from the company and a "pledge not to use such marketing in the future."

Company Response
On the 6th of November 2014, Victoria's Secret reworded the slogan of its campaign into A Body for Every Body, however the same photograph was still used. Whether the slogan was changed due to the negative response from social media or the Change.org petition is unclear. At the time the slogan was changed on the company website, there still existed posters with the previously offensive wording. The slogan was changed quietly without any official announcements, with the creators of the Change.org petition stating that they "were not notified by Victoria's Secret or the press about this, we found it out ourselves." The company also did not respond to news agency requests to comment on the controversy and the change or to apologise for their mistake as the petition requested. By the 16th of November, the company had worked to remove posters with the old slogan from their stores, although an apology was still not given.

Competitors' Response
Underwear company Dear Kate responded by posting a replica of the Victoria's Secret ad on its website, featuring women in a similar arrangement but with varied body shapes and sizes and the same slogan, The Perfect Body. In the post, the company also expressed disappointment and called the move "irresponsible marketing". Another response came from the British fashion brand JD Williams in the form of a campaign called Perfectly Imperfect, encouraging the use of the hashtag #perfectlyimperfect and promoting "body confidence for all women, of all ages, sizes and shapes." Dove also tweeted on the 30th of October 2014 their own version of the photo with a variety of body types, calling for a celebration of the "perfect REAL body".