Commercialized Sexuality In Victoria's Secret Commercials

In this ad, the product being sold is bras and underwear. To sell these items, Victoria's Secret has to convince you that if you, as a woman, wear these particular sets of lingerie, you will be as sexy as the girls in the commercial. If you are confident with your body, you wouldn't need these items to be sexy. Therefore, this company has to convince women that they are not attractive unless they are wearing expensive lingerie. They do this by presenting an ideal image of femininity that no real woman can match, and telling you that the reason they are so attractive is because of the underwear.

The caption at the beginning of the ad states 'Meet The New Shapes of Sexy'. The women that are presented are very skinny, very tall, all white, and all classically feminine with long hair. Two of of the three models are blonde. It's projecting an image of sexy that very few people meet. This commercial upholds the image of women as sexual, but not the dominators. These woman are portrayed as attractive placeholders, with no personality other than sexual attraction. As well, the locations that they are supposed to be 'living' in are high class apartments. This is a purposeful tool used by the advertisers to convince you that people who can afford expensive apartments always buy this brand of lingerie, and you can look like these people, and give off the impression that you are as rich as these people, if only you buy the same lingerie.

In closing, this ad projects an image of sexuality and lifestyles that cannot be achieved by most people, but convinces the viewer that if they wear this lingerie, they'll be seen as as attractive as these models. It perpetrates the fiction of beauty as simply skinny white feminine girls, and shames every woman that does not fit these standards.