These photos of Victoria's Secret commercials over the years reveal why the store is struggling in the #MeToo era
The brand was created by Ray Raymond in 1977. Raymond named the brand after the Victorian era in England, wanting to evoke the refinement of this period in his lingerie. The term "secrets" refers to what was hidden beneath.
The brand was bought by its current parent company, L Brands, for $1 million in 1982 with its current CEO, Les Wexner, at the helm.
The overtly provocative nature of Raymond's Victoria's Secret was slightly altered when Wexner took the helm of the brand — but make no mistake, lingerie still abounded.
The brand held its first runway show in 1995.
Source: L Brands
The idea of the Victoria's Secret "Angel" came into play in 1997 after a commercial featuring Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová, Stephanie Seymour, and Tyra Banks ran to promote its "Angels" underwear collection. From then on, the term Angel become synonymous with the brand.
Surce: The Cut
In the early commercials, the models were heavily made up and scantily dressed.
In 2014, Amercian Eagle's underwear label Aerie swapped its airbrushed ads for unretouched photos and launched a body-positive campaign known as #AerieReal.
In its most recent ad, the bras definitely felt more modest, but the premise is almost identical to what aired over 20 years ago, indicating that very little has changed even in the context of #MeToo.
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