Victoria’s Secret Officially Ditches The Angels, Partners With Megan Rapinoe In Effort To Rebrand

Megan Rapinoe, Stella Maxwell
J. Lee/Getty Images

Victoria’s Secret is about to look completely different.

And that means that yes, the iconic Angels are on their way out.

The company is starting a new marketing effort called “VS Collective,” which according to their website, is all about inclusion:

“These extraordinary partners, with their unique backgrounds, interests and passions, will collaborate with us to create revolutionary product collections, compelling and inspiring content, new internal associate programs and rally to support causes vital to women.”

They’re also launching a campaign to raise awareness for women’s cancer, The Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers.

The new faces that will represent the company include US Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, along with five other woman:

Megan has been very outspoken in the past about how she feels about the way the lingerie company portrays women, so it’s kind of surprising to see her join in on this new marketing campaign.

She said it sent a harmful message to women and believed it was:

“Patriarchal, sexist, viewing not just what it meant to be sexy but what the clothes were trying to accomplish through a male lens and through what men desired.

And it was very much marketed toward younger women.” 

CEO Martin Waters told the New York Times it was finally time for a change:

“When the world was changing, we were too slow to respond. We needed to stop being about what men want and to be about what women want.

I’ve known that we needed to change this brand for a long time, we just haven’t had the control of the company to be able to do it.

As for the Angels? Right now, I don’t see it as being culturally relevant.”

The company had seen a decline in sales over the past few years, likely prompting them to take this massive step. According to Yahoo,

“The company’s share of the U.S. women’s underwear market reportedly decreased from 32 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2020.”

So, it’s a little bit less of a marketing change and more of a complete rebrand for the iconic company.

Of course, a lot of people seem happy about the change, others not so much:

To be honest, I’m not really sure how this will all play out.

It does seem like the company did need to do something at this point by including a broader range of women and body types (especially considering their competitors like Aerie started doing this years ago), but the sexy image and the supermodel Angels are what made the brand what it is.

And, to completely get rid of them altogether might not be the best idea, seeing as many women actually liked them and felt empowered by that, too.

It kind of seems like the most inclusive thing would’ve been to include all the new faces and the Angels.

So, we’ll see how it will go for them in the long run, but they do plan to start phasing out the Angels and phasing in the new girls now.

And that also means that the days of the iconic Victoria’s Secret fashion show are over, too. It was cancelled in 2019 and 2020 because of similar concerns with brand marketing and public perception.

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