Controversy haunts the lingerie company’s corporate image despite a massive rebrand
By: Alina Jaffer
Birgit Kos for Victoria’s Secret Fall 2022 (CAMILLA AKRANS/VS PRESS ROOM).
Content Warning: Mentions of anti-fatness
Arriving in Canada in 2010, Victoria’s Secret (VS) conquered the intimate apparel industry with its army of Angels.
The company was easily identifiable thanks to their infamous annual fashion shows. These hour-long televised events featured supermodels – known as Victoria’s Secret Angels – strutting down the runway wearing the newest VS products while performers like The Weeknd and Justin Bieber entertained star-studded crowds.
The 23 shows – held between 1995 and 2018 – consistently received public criticism for failing to include a variety of body types. Still, executives stayed true to a thin-centric beauty standard.
Prior to the final show, chief marketing officer Ed Razek said plus-sized models were not wanted on the VS runway.
“We attempted to do a television special for plus sizes [in 2000,]” he said. “No one had any interest in it, still don’t.”
Razek also said runway shows selling fantasy should not feature Trans people – a comment that later elicited his formal apologies.
According to Business Insider, Razek retired in 2019. In the same year, former CEO Leslie Wexner was linked to Jeffrey Epstein. The convicted sex offender managed Wexner’s money for years and name-dropped Victoria’s Secret when coercing his victims.
Retail analyst Bruce Winder says these issues led to a sales freefall at the beginning of 2020.
“It’s been kind of like death by a thousand cuts for these guys,” said Winder for Retail Insider.
This sales decline prompted a long-overdue rebrand for the lingerie giant. Recent campaigns feature plus-size models, Trans models and neurodiverse models. Many of these women are part of The VS Collective – a partnership platform shaping the future of Victoria’s Secret.
Still, Generation Z trashes the brand relentlessly on social media.
Reputation is everything
If TikTok is any indication, young consumers are unconvinced by Victoria’s Secret’s rebranding efforts.
Users posted over 100,000 videos featuring a tune by singer-songwriter Jax. The Gen-Z anthem – overtly called Victoria’s Secret – remarks on the lack of body diversity under Wexner’s reign.
These references depict a demographic unable – or unwilling – to forgive the brand’s scandal-ridden past.
“I think today's cancel culture demonstrates that young consumers have no problem discarding brands that behave badly,” said Winder in an email correspondence.
Wexner’s comments on his relationship with Epstein perhaps sum up this predicament. “In terms of legacy, people remember the great villains more than they remember the great heroes,” he said in a documentary series called Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons.
In addition to escaping past scandals, an effective revamp will require escaping past success.
The marketing strategies which relied on fanciful, exclusive sex appeal worked in the early 2000s. In an era working towards fat liberation and body positivity, those same strategies hinder the company’s attempts to project an inclusive image.
ForbesWomen explains body positivity as an increasingly popular movement promoting the acceptance of all sizes, shapes, skin tones, genders and disabilities. The movement was originally created by and for fat and queer Black folks as a way to uproot a marginalizing body politic.
Today’s young consumer demands that the lingerie we wear is as diverse as our bodies.
Despite diverse launches like The VS Collective, young consumers continue to associate the brand’s ambassadors with thinner models.
In a poll of 40 Canadian women aged 15-25, respondents revealed which name comes to mind when they think about Victoria’s Secret models. See the results below.
Similarly, a study conducted by the retailer in February 2022 found that most shoppers could not identify Victoria’s Secret & Co. as the brand behind their more recent, diverse adverts.
“For years, they have only celebrated and showcased thin, able-bodied, mostly white women,” said a 21-year-old poll respondent named Sara Belas. “Anytime they’ve had a model that strays away from that norm of theirs, I don’t feel it’s authentic. To me, it always feels performative.”
Such performative advertising is a frequent critique of recent VS campaigns.
“Indeed, Victoria’s Secret may need to rethink its rebrand, because no one is buying its calculated wokeness,” said journalist Luther Abel for The National Review.
Belas and Abel are not alone in their concerns. Over half of those polled said Victoria’s Secret is not committed to fostering the happy, healthy and inclusive culture promoted in their current mission statement.
Moving forward
History shows that hope is not necessarily lost for the VS reputation
Lululemon’s former owner, Chip Wilson, was slammed for sexist comments in 2013. According to Winder, the notoriety of this scandal was similar to that of the scandals faced by Victoria’s Secret. Nonetheless, Lululemon was able to overcome the issue with Wilson’s resignation.
Winder said new leaders are often used to reflect a change in culture by companies looking to rectify poor reputations.
In fact, the new CEO of Victoria’s Secret – Martin Waters – frequently expressed his commitment to reformation in a September 2022 press release.
A sign advertising the rebrand hangs in Victoria’s Secret’s Square One fitting rooms (ALINA JAFFER/J-SCHOOL).
Winder outlined a number of other marketing strategies generally adopted by retailers post-controversy. “They sometimes donate money to causes to show their commitment to groups that have been violated,” he said.
Accordingly, Victoria’s Secret recently announced its commitment of donating $300,000 to nonprofit organizations identified by Inclusion Resource Groups.
The recent acquisition of Adore Me may also help Victoria’s Secret cultivate a progressive image. Adore Me is a digitally-native company which does most of its business via subscription services.
Co-founder of Triangle Capital LLC, Richard Kestenbaum, wrote about the acquisition for Forbes.
“Thinking flexibly about subscription and integrating it into loyalty tools and the relationship with consumers is where the big opportunity is,” said Kestenbaum. “Not every retailer is capable of committing the time, patience, capital and leadership for this kind of adaptability.”
Still, it is worth noting that customers may not stick around as Victoria’s Secret continues to navigate this new era. Brands with a clearer ethos – like Savage x Fenty, Skims, and ThirdLove – received praise from TeenVogue for revolutionizing the lingerie world by broadening representation in their campaigns.
The days of marketing sexuality and appeal solely to size 00s are over. Today’s young consumer demands that the lingerie we wear is as diverse as our bodies.
As times continue to change, Victoria’s Secret must continue to tear down the old and build up the new – lest they lose the interest of Generation Z.