What comes into your mind when you hear the phrase “I Love My Body“?

I translate that as “loving my body, despite the social standards or however I look.”

Ironically, the Victoria’s Secret’s campaign with the slogan “I Love My Body” includes a poster of “Victoria’s Secret Angels” (models) lined up in their new “Body by Victoria” lingerie collection. These models are about  5’10”, size two, with measurements 34-25-34. That is quite a big discrepancy between the models and the body figures of most women.

Victoria’s Secret vs. Dove

Many people who came across this advertisement expressed their disagreements. Mainly, consumers were uncomfortable at the fact that the models used for the campaign have unattainable bodies. The models also all look very similar, with same hairstyles, same body figures, same facial expressions. By using these so called ‘perfect models’, with the slogan, gives off the wrong message. These models love their bodies, whereas if an average woman compared her body with the models, she wouldn’t be able to find a reason why she should love hers. Similarly, Dove made a campaign where they used various sizes of women ranging from size 4 to 10. Dove got a lot of attention for their campaign for using the images of women we can find around us. In contrast Victoria’s Secret was criticized for using artificially maintained models to portray the idea of beauty.

So despite all the criticisms, why does Victoria’s Secret choose to continue promoting their slender models? It’s simply because it sells.  It’s visually enticing. The company stands in its place as the #1 lingerie store in the world due to their sexy image. As much as consumers are upset at their ‘ideal body figure’, Victoria’s Secret knows that if they used average women as their models, they would not earn nearly as much money as they do now. At the end, the campaign doesn’t seem to celebrate the diversity in women’s body figures; it’s just showing off their sexy models as well as their newly launched lingerie collection.