Victoria's Secret Holiday Campaign: Missed Opportunity?

Victoria's Secret's overall new brand identity and holiday campaign could have be much better if they retained and elaborated more on the fantastical, magical side of the brand.

So, what’s the sitch?

As you may or may not know, Victoria’s Secret has been undergoing some major rebranding as of August 2021 after Les Wexner, founder of L Brands, stepped down as CEO of Victoria’s Secret when his ties with Jeffery Epstein was revealed back in May 2020.

What was used to be a well known undergarment retailer store known for their iconic annual runway show featuring “angels” in big glamorous wings and pop star celebrities, Victoria’s Secret has now rebranded with a new look now focusing more on women empowerment via inclusivity and body positivity. This shift in their brand identity has people all over social media expressing their opinions by calling the brand “utilitarian and boring” (can largely be seen on Twitter). People want the wings and glamour back!

What is Victoria’s Secret doing about this?

Not much. Just after halloween, Hailey Bieber revealed Instagram a picture of her in a green lingerie a collaboration she did for Victoria’s Secret Holiday campaign this year.

(Source from https://www.instagram.com/haileybieber/?hl=en)

Although the campaign is more focused on showing the product through a clean-cut, minimalistic approach with a white background and no additional distractions, it does come off a bit dull. And again, this left people all over social media from Instagram to Tiktok with much to say. To sum it all up, people don’t like how basic and subdued Victoria’s Secret is becoming.

What could have been done better?

Personally, I feel as though they could have done much more with this Holiday campaign. Holiday is supposed to be a fun and festive time of the year where people want to feel the festivity through everything and anything they consume and see.

Victoria’s Secret should embrace the fantastical, ethereal side of what their brand used to be as it was one of the main factors that drew people to their brand and create fun campaigns because currently, they are channeling a bit too much realism.

Suggestion: Since Hailey Bieber has a history of being a ballerina, they could have played around with a nutcracker themed holiday campaign with a dreamy concept of a sugar plum fairy and bring back the wings! I believe this would have attracted a lot more attention and brand awareness.