Lingerie can be erotic, empowering, and make you fell sexy. This isn’t a controversial ideas about intimate wear, this is just a cold fact: You feel sexier, you are sexier. However, it’s hard not to talk about something so intimate without ruffling some feathers. Destination Luxury presents the most controversial lingerie advertisements.
7. NOT WHAT MOM WOULD WEAR
Banned from ABC and FOX in 2010 for being “too sexy,” this commercial features a scantly clad woman getting ready for a big date, only to decide that the best outfit is NO outfit. Destination Luxury doesn’t recommend that attire for a lunch date.
6. ”LOUNGERIE”
Image courtesy of rediff.com
Over in France the same year, French designer Jours Apres Lunes decided that what children REALLY needed was… Sex appeal. In a move that makes this writer want to call CPS and take a long shower, the designer featured scantly clad girls ages 4 to 12 in full makeup and rather revealing clothes.
5. WHO INVITED BOB DYLAN?
You know what I think when I think “sexy undies?” Not Bob Dylan. Yes, back in 2004, when the iPhone had yet to be introduced and we still thought the HD-DVD might catch on, Bob Dylan, who was famous for being anti-establishment and not being the best singer, starred in a Victoria’s Secret commercial. Fans were outraged, but the commercial was still a success.
4. THE ADA COLLECTION
Proving that the road to underwear is paved with good intentions, the niche-designer and “leak free” brand Dear Kate sparked a controversy in 2014. The idea was pretty solid: Show successful women in the tech industry modeling clothes named after Ada Lovelace, the creator of the world’s first algorithm. The ads, however, perpetuated the idea that a woman can’t make it in the tech industry without showing her body. Kind of a lose-lose situation.
3. NATURAL CHARM
Back in 2011, Brazilian lingerie brand HOPE decided to hire professional Bombshell Giselle Bundchen to do a few spots about using “natural charms.” What they instead made were pointedly sexist commercials about women getting away with things because they’re in underwear.
2. BACK TO SCHOOL
Image courtesy of independent.co.uk
American Apparel is no stranger to controversy: From their “Now Open” campaign not long ago but their “Back to School” advertisements from 2014 was positively shocking: A young woman in a schoolgirl outfit exposing herself by being bent over. Controversial in all the wrong ways, but not super surprising: American Apparel has a history of rather blatant advertisements.
1. BLUE SHOES
Image courtesy of sodahead.com
From the uncomfortable, to the funny, to the weird, to… Just plain icky. Elle MacPherson, back in 2004, created what can only be described as the “Anti-Lingerie Ad”, with the viewer peeking through a door and finding a woman in blue shoes on the carpet, looking like she was thrown to the ground or sick. This advertisement found itself back in social media circulation back in 2013 when Renee Mayne aired her disgust on the topic, but one has to wonder what was going through Elle Macpherson’s mind when they created such an ad.
