Logos in the 2014 Victoria's Secret Ad

The Victoria's Secret "A Body for Every Body" ad appeals to logos through the images displayed, and getting rid of the "right vs wrong" mentality. Displaying ten models, each wearing a different type of lingerie that Victoria's Secret sells will show the targeted audience that there is a lingerie set for each individual. The drawback of having this set up is that all of the models look the same, so when a woman is shopping for lingerie, she will want to see a model with her body type, which Victoria's Secret does not cater to. Although Victoria's Secret does not show different body types, but using the slogan "A Body for Every Body", they are trying to get rid of the "right vs wrong" mentality that comes with a woman's body. When women view this ad, they may be confused by the slogan paired with the image, they will still appreciate that Victoria's Secret is acknowledging there is not just one body type - the one shown in the ad. It is a little confusing that Victoria's Secret would pair this slogan with the image, but it has some appeal to logos associated with it.

Pathos for the 1960 Warner's Ad

With feminism playing a big role of changing fashion in the 1960's, Warner's was successful at targeting women to make them feel free, confident, and in control. A bird flying away from it's cage gives the illusion of freedom an that women who wear the corset will feel as free as this bird. The 1950's had a more conservative look, covering female bodies, but the woman holding the empty bird cage is only wearing the corset. Showing her arms, legs, and chest, this woman promotes confidence in women and their bodies. Women don't have to be modest anymore, they are free to show off their bodies. This was a small step towards a greater freedom over their body. The slogan, "Feel free to be beautiful" gives women the idea that they are in control of what they wear and whether they want to feel beautiful in it. With the product giving them the "freedom" to decide how they want to look, women are encouraged to feel confident and in control of their bodies.

Kairos in Victoria's Secret's "A Body for Everybody"

Today women are "carefree" when it comes to wearing lingerie. In American society, we are becoming more and more accepting of all body types for women. However, the "ideal" body type still exists. With that being said, it is seen as unacceptable to "put down" other body types in any way to uplift (and/or put on a pedestal) what is seen as the "best" body shape. The original Victoria's Secret ad for this particular lingerie collection did just that. Below you'll see that they are basically insinuating that the models below have the "perfect" body.

 

 

They faced major controversy over this advertisement and campaigns to stop body shaming (the putting down of other body types to glorify another) begun.

 They quickly tried to do "damage control" by changing the slogan used in the ad to "A Body for Everybody" in an attempt to gain back the support of customers they may have lost. In modern day American society, ads like the original version of Victoria's Secret's body campaign are virtually unacceptable. There is now a new focus of the feminist movement, stop body shaming.

Ethos in Lingerie Ads

In the 1960s, it was popular for women to wear corsettes underneath their clothing to make it seem as though they have a smaller waist. It was known that an hour glass figure was the most ideal shape for women. The corselette alone allows Warners to establish ethos with the audience, who at the time would be looking for a corset that helps them to achieve the hourglass figure. They also establish ethos by using a model, someone who is "known" for having the ideal shape for a woman, to advertise their product. By establishing credibility, Warners is more likely to get the customer to by their product.

Pathos of the 2014 Victoria Secret Ad

With Victoria Secret and it's fashion show being so popular, the company has greatly impacted the ideal image of women. Not that everyone believes a woman should be this size, but media has encouraged women to become more model-like. The people viewing this ad will start to believe that this is the shape of a perfect woman with curves in all the right places. For the female audience, this could take a toll on their emotions. The ad could be motivation for women to get in shape like these models. This is not the intention of the ad, but with all the women the same size and the slogan "A Body for Everybody," one can believe that this is the preferred body of a woman. The Victoria Secret models in this ad can cause some women to have lower or high self-esteem based on if they look like these models or not. If a woman takes the ad in a negatived way, she could view herself as an outcast from society because she doesn't have a body for everybody. A woman who is proud of her shape, may take the ad as a compliment whether she believes she looks just as good or better than these models. This ad appeals for women of all shapes to lead them to believe that wearing Victoria Secret lingerie will make them feel as though they have that body for everybody. They're promoting that their product will boost confidence and make women feel sexy. They achieved this pathos by including these different models in one advertisement to create the image that even though they are slightly different, they share the same body shape and sexiness from the Victoria Secret lingerie.

Kairos in the 1960s Lingerie Ad

In the 1960s women were beginning to free themselves from the constraints of American societal expectations for women. During this time, women were beginning to fight for right, such as, equality in the work place and equal pay. The feminist movement of the 1960s also allowed women to become more comfortable with being more "sexy." The release of this advertisement encouraging women to "feel free to be beautiful" is perfectly timed with the change in the role of the woman in American Society. By using what looks like an average looking woman to  model their lingerie, Warners would have contributed to the movement.

Ethos in the 2014 Victoria's Secret Ad

Victoria's Secret has a lot of extrinsic ethos due to it's establishment of being a company for almost 40 years. Throughout that time, they have released many different ads and become one of the most well-known lingerie companies. Victoria's Secret is very skilled in providing customers with the products they want. This is shown in the 2014 ad because even though the name "Victoria's Secret" is not printed on it, when women look at it, they will recognize the model type and lingerie style that is being displayed as Victoria's Secret. The intrinsic ethos that Victoria's Secret uses is in the slogan "A Body for Every Body". The company is trying to persuade the consumers that their lingerie is for everyone, even though there is roughly only one body type shown in the actual ad. Another example of the company's intrinsic ethos is their annual fashion show. This fashion show displays the "Victoria's Secret Angels" wearing elaborate angel wings with the designer-looking lingerie. When the targeted women watch this fashion show, they want to buy the lingerie to try to look like the models. This fashion show also ties into the extrinsic ethos Victoria's Secret has, as this adds to their reputation.

Audience of the 1960s Lingerie Ad

For the Warners "Floating Bra Corselette" lingerie ad, the targeted audience are middle-age women. These women are looking to feel sexy and "free" - as quoted on the ad itself. Using a woman who appears to be around the same age, will give the targeted customers a sense of hope to achieve the beauty that the woman in the ad displays. In the 60s, the feminist movement was prevalent, and this ad plays into that by showing a woman being "free", and not being restricted. The targeted middle-age women will be knowledgable of this feminist movement; some may even be apart of it. This correlation ties into the women buying the product as they enjoy the ad and how it displays the woman.

Audience of the 2014 Victoria's Secret Ad

When Victoria's Secret created their "A Body for Every Body" ad, they were targeting young impressionable girls, or girls who want to feel sexy. Looking at this ad, these girls see all of the stick-thin models with seemingly perfect bodies. Victoria's Secret knows that impressionable girls will see this ad and want to buy the lingerie, hoping to achieve the body image displayed. These girls will focus on the caption, making them blind to the fact that all the models look the same instead of showing "every body". On the other side, the girls that view this ad and want to feel sexy will immediately be interested in buying the lingerie. Seeing the confident, sexy models posing in the clothing will entice the customers to purchase the lingerie, as they hope to achieve the same amount of sex appeal. Victoria's Secret knows exactly who their audience is when creating these advertisements for their lingerie. 

Rhetoric Analysis & Stasis Theory in the 2014 VS Ad

With Victoria Secret being one of those most popular and advertised lingerie stores, the women of this century are led to desire a naturally slim figure. Women are not afraid to show skin anymore whether it is too much skin or too little. As shown by Victoria Secret model, Adriana Lima, with a slim body and plump curves, one should never be afraid to show off her body. This new ideal of a naturally slim body gives women who have one more confidence and the women who do not a self-esteem issue. Stasis Theory can help us discover the claim and the influence the 2014 Victoria Secret ad has on women today:

• The conjecture for this Victoria Secret ad is a group of women with "perfect" bodies, a slim waist and large breasts. The slogan is "A Body for Everybody" which implies that everybody should have a body like one of these women which has no variety in shape.     
• From  the 1960's to now, slim bodies have always been desired. With the promotion of this body type, the self-esteem of women will be affected. Those with this body will be raised and without this body will be lowered. 
• The value of this ad would be negative. The models will give women one desired appearance. There is no promotion for freedom or encouragement, but that everybody should have this body. Every woman should feel comfortable in her skin and have her own idea of her desired body. The world has variety sizes of women which should be promoted by Victoria Secret who make lingerie for all sizes of women. The product promoted have different sizes so should their models.
• The actions women can take now is either wear or not wear Victoria Secret lingerie or find another line of lingerie. 
• The advertisers for Victoria Secret should handle this matter in advertisements to compliment all their customers and the women of the world. Women should also take into their hands how they want to handle Victoria Secret, whether they want to shop there or not and/or make an issue of the misrepresentation of women. 

Victoria Secret wants women to think that if they wear the Victoria Secret product, they will look more like these models which is not true. Women come in all shapes and sizes which will become insecurities and self-esteem issues for women who do not look like these models. 

Rhetoric Analysis & Stasis Theory in the 1960's Lingerie Ad

Fashion was one of the first major changes in the 1960's feminist movement. The new trend of fashion showed more skin to ultimately change the view of women in the American culture. With more skin displayed, women craved to have a more attractive body. Sophia Loren from the film Millionairess (shown to the left) wears a corset to give her a waist "to die for." Skinny waists were most desirable in the 1960's.


This new sense of fashion made women feel empowered and in control of their lives and bodies. With the power in their hands, women felt freer which is promoted in the advertisement for Warner's Free Lift corset.




By applying stasis theory, we can dissect the meaning of this advertisement:

• The conjecture for this advertisement is a woman wearing a corset making her waist slimmer and curves more apparent which is what the women of the 1960's desired. The woman is holding an empty bird cage as the bird flies away to show that women who wear the corset will feel as free as a bird. 
• This ad made a slimmer waist more desirable causing women to wear more corsets at a tighter setting which later became a problem later in the 1960's. 
• The value of this advertisement is positive in some aspects by giving women the impression that they will be more free which they were craving in the 1960's. On the other hand, the women would be wearing a corset and not giving her body freedom which gives her body a more negative value if it's not as slim as the woman in the ad. For women who want and contain a slimmer waist, the ad is positive because they feel as though they will be free. For women who wouldn't want to wear corsets or are too large to be as slim as the woman in the ad, this has a negative value because they will feel as though they can never be free.
• The action women took was to take control over their bodies and made their own decisions whether they were to wear a corset or not and control how tight they would wear it to achieve the desired slim look. This made women freer in their appearance.
• Women and advertisement managers have the right to handle these matters. Women  can take the advertisement how they please while advertisement managers have to consider how it will make women feel and if it will sell the product.

The advertisement for Warner's Free Lift corset argues that women who wear the corset will feel free as a bird which actually gives women the freedom to control the appearance of her body. 

Logos in Both Ads

 

 

 

 

 

Above are two advertisements for lingerie, one from the 1960s and the other from 2014. Both advertisements effectively use logos to appeal to their audience’s idea that everyone wants to be “perfect” and “beautiful”.  They appeal to their demographic of young women most likely between the ages of 20 and 35. In the 1960s advertisement they appeal to logos through the use of images. The image of what may have been an average looking women at the time, would persuade whoever saw it to buy Warners’ Floating Bra Corselette Lingerie. They also use the slogan “Feel free to be beautiful”. The modern advertisement by Victoria’s Secret appeals to the audience’s logic by using supermodels to advertise their lingerie. The image of the slim, young looking supermodels with the slogan “The Perfect Body” is used to get young women to buy the lingerie featured in the ad. They create the allusion that wearing the lingerie will make you feel as though you have “the perfect body”.