Move over women’s lingerie – Victoria’s Secret is adding a new line of merchandise. In recent years Victoria’s Secret added their “Pink” line of lingerie – supposedly marketed to college-age girls. Now Victoria’s Secret has announced it will be marketing to an even younger group – middle school-aged girls also referred to as “tweens.”
Interspersed with women’s push-up bras, G-strings, and erotic lingerie, Victoria’s Secret will be selling sexy lingerie to sixth graders.
As BusinessWeek reported: “Forget Training Bras. Girls Are Buying Lingerie.”
Chief Financial Officer Stuart Burgdoerfer of Limited Brands, of which Victoria’s Secret is a subsidiary, announced the company’s new marketing demographic at a recent conference, claiming about younger girls: “They want to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college, and that’s part of the magic of what we do at Pink.”
Take Action! Click here to send a message to Victoria’s Secret and Limited Brands regarding their sexualization of young girls.
This push to draw in “tween” girls was evident at last December’s Victoria’s Secret so-called “Fashion Show” which featured performances by teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber. As the baby-faced Bieber performed in the midst of models clad in brightly-colored lingerie – the color scheme of most 13-year-old girls’ bedrooms – the message was clear who their target audience was.
Victoria’s Secret “Pink” line is using the marketing slogan “Bright Young Things” to advertise lingerie for teens, including panties emblazoned with words such as “Call Me,” “Wild,” and “Feeling Lucky.”
It certainly is telling when even NBC won’t show an image of Victoria’s Secret teen lingerie. On the March 9 “Today Show,” NBC aired a segment regarding this new marketing scheme by Victoria’s Secret, in which the NBC reporter stated: “The latest campaign features underwear too racy to show here.”
The segment went on to interview passersby about Victoria’s Secret marketing of lingerie to young teens. One man on the street said: “They are not for young, little girls.” A mom stated: “I don’t think it has to be sexy at 13 or 14 years old.”
In our highly sexualized culture, little girls (and boys) increasingly are no longer viewed as children whose innocence we as a society have a responsibility to protect. Instead, they are a commodity to be exploited. Sexualized, manipulated, targeted.
Retailers salivate over a new – and vulnerable – consumer group to milk and to manipulate.
Retail Analyst Hitha Prabhakar claims these young teens “represent about 335 billion dollars worth of spending power.”
According to Timothy Matz, a former advertising director who now teaches marketing and advertising: “It's beginner-level lingerie. It's gateway marketing. It's like a gateway drug, the same concept –to get you using that brand earlier."
Sadly, it is no surprise when we hear of very young teens (and even younger) involved in sexual activity – not when the entertainment and retail industries bombard them with such sexualized messages. Children at younger and younger ages becoming concerned about body image. Little girls dressing provocatively. Young boys involved in pornography.
Children victimized by a culture that sees their worth only in dollars – robbing them of their innocence. To put it bluntly – a culture teaching little girls to act like sluts and teaching little boys to treat them as such.
Psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz cautioned: “I think we are already facing how to keep younger and younger girls from getting involved in sexual activity that they’re not ready for, that puts them at risk for all kinds of things – physically and emotionally.”
In 1980 there was great outrage when 15-year old Brooke Shields posed provocatively in a blue jean ad for Calvin Klein – an ad that would be tame by today’s standards. The suggestive ad slogan was: “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.” The television version of this Calvin Klein advertisement was banned by networks and the ad received nearly universal condemnation by a culture that still knew when a line had been crossed.
America in 1980 recognized the difference between fashion and pornography and still cared about the exploitation of children. Not so much in 2013 America.
Sex sells – even to children. But at what cost?
Perhaps corporate America might want to remember Christ’s warning in Matthew 18:6. I’ve heard millstones are awfully heavy.
Contact Victoria’s Secret with the “take action” link above or with the following contact information:
Limited Brands, Inc.
Leslie Wexner – Chairman & CEO
3 Limited Parkway
Columbus, OH 43230
614-415-7440
Victoria’s Secret
Sharen Turney – CEO
PO Box 16589
Columbus, OH 43216-6589
614-577-7000
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