Victoria's Secret Thesis Statement

The first advertisement I found was the “For the Benefit of Mankind”, Under Armour Ad. At first glance we see a very masculine male, with a chiseled body modeling his Under Armour briefs. But, if we take a closer look into the background we see a young, and beautiful woman loosely wrapped in a sexy gown. The setting of the advertisement looks like an expensive bachelor pad. The purpose of this picture is to advertise Under Armour’s new briefs, by making them look appealing to the directed audience. Along with the briefs, women stereotypes are also being advertised. Although the woman isn’t meant to be the main focus of the ad, she is added to show if a man wears these boxers, they can get with a beautiful woman. In the text below the picture the product’s features are being flaunted, but in the picture the only thing being flaunted is the masculinity of the man in the picture. One gender stereotype that is portrayed in this picture is that woman are physically weak. The man in the photo is very muscular and enlarged in the photo. The thin female model is posed in a delicate position in the background of the picture. This shows that she is less important, and just added to highlight the male model’s masculinity. A woman perceived as sexually active might be labeled as a slut while a

Victoria’s Secret is a retail store, which offers a wide range of lingerie, beauty products, clothes and accessories. Victoria’s Secret is owned and run by the Limited Brands Company. It accounts for more than 50% of Limited Brands’ corporate profits. Victoria’s Secret owns more than 1000 stores all over the United States. It is the most popular brand of lingerie in the US.

Gender role bias in advertisements has been so prevalent for so long that the untrained eye wouldn't even discern it. All the same, these biases, for the most part, put women in subordinate positions and men in dominant ones. This assumption on both the genders is unfair and demeaning. These ads portray women as subservient and play toys for men. Not only do the models depict an image nowhere near close to reality, but their bodies are scantily clad and what few clothes they are wearing are very revealing.

Because the public doesn’t spend much time reading ads, it’s crucial to get the reader’s attention quickly, and what better way to do that than with body language and nonverbal cues? In an article entitled, “Reading Bodies,” written by Susan Bordo, she writes about and ad for Jockey as well as the models in the ad. She claims that “their poses directed the viewer’s attention to their crotches” (109). This further proves the advertiser’s motives. In Kinky’s ad, you see a woman on her knees in a pink, skin-tight, mini-skirt with one leg pointing upwards. Her upper torso is hidden by dresses that are hung on her closet door, so the main point of focus is on the lower half of

In this ad, it is promoting the newest Victoria’s Secret “Dream Angels” collection. There are eight women who are modeling different lingerie sets. Also at the bottom of each model there is a name for the type of lingerie they are demonstrating. The majority are tall, slim, have clear skin, and show confidence. Most importantly, there is a bold caption in the middle of the ad stating “A Body For Every Body”. In this advertisement, it uses Pathos, the appeal of emotion; Ethos, the appeal to show credibility; and Logos; the appeal of logic. Even though the ad uses all three appeals, Patho is the main focus.

This ad is multidimensional in the way that it demeans women. The first layer is equating the women with inanimate objects. The women are being scaled down to the size of beer bottles as though they were barbie dolls, meant to be played with and molded by the hands of the viewer. The model lays with her legs spread and her chest pushed out in a hypersexualized submissive pose. She looks up at the viewer with a coy smile. Ads like these are meant to sell to an adult male audience. They are made by men with the intention of making money and the understanding that if you offer a typical American male the idea of sex with a physically attractive woman and equate that to a product, he will buy almost anything. This type of imagery also affects how women feel that they should act. Viewing images of women as sex objects in these submissive poses causes women to feel that they are only valuable if they fit the ideals put in place by the heterosexual male gaze.

I remember the first time I ever stepped foot into a Victoria’s Secret, I was fifteen years old. I was mesmerized by the bright pink and white walls. The signature PINK dogs scattered all over the PINK side of the store. The cosmetics section was sparkling in the distance and the signature fragrances filled the air. I remember the feeling of finally being grown up, here I was shopping for fragrances and bras in the same store that my Mom and Aunt bought theirs at. When you are fifteen there is nothing else in the world that matters more than feeling grown up, you are no longer a kid and there is a whole new world for you to explore. Talking to women, most have the same first experience at the store, in fact it is nearly the closest thing to magic some young girls will experience in this era of their lives. This unfortunately, is not going to be about that coming of age experience this paper is a whole lot deeper than any fifteen year old girl buying her first grown up bra could ever imagine. Victoria’s Secret a common name in households with women from young adulthood to mature womanhood. What is Victoria’s actual “secret” you may ask? That would be a whole behind the scenes world of global fair trade issues and sweatshops.

Of the many societal customs engrained in humanity, marriage may be one of the most prevalent. For most of history, man and woman have displayed their capacity for affection through this formality; and, for most of history, marriage has been limited to only man and woman. Like marriage, however, homosexuality too has existed for thousands of years. One could even argue that it is simply a part of human nature. Nonetheless, those who identify as anything but heterosexual have been persecuted for hundreds of years. In the United States of America, gay marriage has been legal since 2015 -- and although legal, the opposition persists to this day through politicians and religious groups. For example, while the Constitution of the United States

Victoria’s Secret has a valid intellectual claim against Victor’s Little Secret because of the adult novelties and hosiery items that they sell. Lanham Act is a federal law that protects trademarks (Lau, 2012, p. 289). “A trademark is any kind of name, logo, motto, device, sound, color, or look that identifies the origin of a particular good or service. Something begins to look like a trademark when a consumer identifies it with a particular origin (Lau, 2012, p. 290). Roy Raymond opened up Victoria’s Secret in 1977; and “chose the name ‘Victoria’ to evoke the propriety and respectability associated with the Victorian era; outwardly refined, Victoria’s secrets were hidden beneath” (Business Insider, 2015). A name is important in a business; in fact, Victoria’s Secret name weight with literary importance. The store did not start off being successful; furthermore, he was near bankruptcy after opening up three more stores by 1982 and sold the store in 1982 to Leslie Wexne (telegraph).

In today’s society, women are held to a higher standard of beauty than men. Women in the media shape society’s mainstream idea of beauty. Beauty standards surround us worldwide, from magazines, television, to films. The media depicts unrealistic expectations for women to look a certain way. One of the great offenders of this issue is Victoria’s Secret, because they only use models that look a particular way

There are 10 completely different women, yet they all have something in common. Not only are they all Victoria’s Secret models, but they all embody what people consider as “tall and thin”. On the ad with these 10 women, the words “The Perfect Body” is centered, in bold, white letters. Each woman has a different pose, and they are wearing nothing but a different pair of a lingerie set. Under every model is the name of the lingerie set that they are wearing, and every name sounds like it is only accomadated for their “type of women.”

Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have

Victoria Secret was founded in by Roy Raymond, and his wife Gaye, in San Francisco, California, on June 12, 1977. The company got its start when Roy Raymond was trying to shop for lingerie for his wife. He’d gone to a department store to make his purchase, only to find himself deeply uncomfortable and made even more so by saleswomen scrutinizing his presence there. “When I tried to buy lingerie for my wife,” Raymond told Newsweek in 1981, “I was faced with racks of terry-cloth robes and ugly floral-print nylon nightgowns, and I always had the feeling the department-store saleswomen thought I was an unwelcome intruder.” Raymond saw an opportunity in his discomfort and in 1977 borrowed $80,000 to open Victoria’s Secret as a store designed originally to make men comfortable when buying lingerie for their wives.

The advertisement that I have decided to describe and analyze is one from Armani Code, a cologne producing company. When I first glanced at the advertisement, there were a few things that jumped out to me. The first of those things was an attractive white female with a lot of skin showing kissing and hugging an attractive white male who is professionally dressed. The next thing that caught my eye was the fact that the male was staring off somewhere into the distance while this beautiful female was trying to kiss him. He is portraying himself as if he is disinterested in the female. The third and final thing that caught my eye before actual analysis of the advertisement was the fact that the picture is all black and white. The girl, with her skin showing, is mainly all white. The male in his suit is mainly all black, with the exception of his face and white undershirt. Additionally, the bottle the cologne is held in, which is placed in the bottom right hand corner, is all black as well, with the words Armani Code printed on the bottom of the bottle is small print. While the ad itself is quite simple in design, it’s the meaning behind the picture that provides the most power. The message behind this advertisement is if Armani Code cologne is worn by any man that so many girls will like that man wearing the cologne in a sexual way that the man will eventually become sick of the females and focus on other things. This particular ad targets males while chasing the

Victoria Secret appears to be a profitable company. Victoria Secret is part of L Brands whose operating income was at $ 211 million, up by $24 million from the last quarter. Specifically at Victoria's Secret, sales increased by 4% to reach 5.4 billion but operating income decreased by 6% to 1.71 billion. It appears that Victoria Secret's major expense was their Cost of Goods Sold, COGS, which totaled at 1.3144 billion. The gross profit percentage as at February 2013 was 47.87% (NASDAQ, 2014).