Victoria's Secret has cast Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio, an openly transgender woman, for a catalog photo shoot. This announcement marks the first time Victoria's Secret has cast a transgender person for a catalog or brand campaign. Does this mean the lack of diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry is finally changing?
In the past, Victoria's Secret CMO, Ed Razek, has caught flack for expressing a lack of interest in casting transgender and plus-size models. The company recently announced that Mr. Razek was leaving the company, in part because of his problematic comments. Recently, the brand has received criticism for being old fashioned and out of touch. The Victoria's Secret has lost a significant market share to brands like Fashion Nova and Savage X Fenty. Recently, Karlie Kloss left Victoria's Secret because "The kind of message I want to send to young women around the world about what it means to be beautiful." The change in leadership and casting practices has been seen by many as overdue.
In 2017, Playboy cast the first-ever transgender cover model. On top of that, the brand's GAP and H&M have both created campaigns featuring LGBTQ models. So this move by Victoria's Secret could be seen as a catalyst for casting trends in the apparel advertising industry.
Lead photo by WestportWiki used under Creative Commons.
I don't see what all the discussion is about. This is Marketing 101. Evaluate current social trends, and tastefully integrate them into your campaign. Companies don't subscribe to emotional decision-making, or being supportive of a cause. Instead, they're groomed by their PR and Marketing departments to project a personality with such attributes. If a company donates X amount of dollars to a cause, believe me, they're seeing that investment come back in multitudes from the exposure they get in press/viral commenting.
Totally wrong, after announcement chief marketing executive resigned and he is responsible for brand fame.
Don't want go on article author, but in all other media. News was that Mr Ed Razek resigned, witch is bad news for investors. Its extremely hard to replace any member of c-suite that means that brand most like going to have some unwanted changes.
Next marketing champagne will be weary different from what we know Victoria's Secret, no more catwalks most likely!!
Their sales have been down for the last three years.
And what’s bad for the investors is not always bad for the company.
Don't want to disappoint you if investors lose interest in company company gose bust. when they hired transgender women just show how company divided in departments. More less board members/investors have different ideas from CEO and CMO. It looks like in this triangle they just don't communicate with each other despite all meetings etc.. etc.. This confusion cost CMO resignation without any benefit to the company.
So guy who makes these catwalk show out of the business and he was the one who rised this brad with unusual catwalk shows. This year show already delaying and it's not sure if they do it. For next year we will see with what they come up.
So for a man to just like women and only women is being problematic, old-fashioned and out-of-touch? Who knew how totally fuxx'ed-in-the-head as a species we have become.
No that’s not problematic. He is problematic because of all the time he spent with Jeffery Ebstiene. He is old fashioned/out of touch because he was unwilling or unable to look at the future of the apparel industry.
You mean "apparel" industry. Trans is the future? It is a deadend on many levels.
Wider representation is the future.
I see a lot of straight white christian men in the comments upset that they aren't the center of the universe.
I'm transgender and all i can think is: Why are so many straight men angrily commenting on this? Does everyone know this is a catalog for ladies and folks like me who would actually buy this clothing? I guess it gives me a heads up of how diverse or not diverse Fstoppers is. It's enlightening as a newbie here who simply loves photography and appreciates seeing something including us. We've only existed for over 4,500 years all over the planet in many cultures, seems like it shouldn't be as big of a deal as it is.