Go broke: Last year, I said Victoria’s Secret was declaring bankruptcy by swapping its “Angels” for trans models and hoo boy do I feel prophetic right now
Is “bwoke” a word? It should be.
Go broke: Last year, I said Victoria’s Secret was declaring bankruptcy by swapping its “Angels” for trans models and hoo boy do I feel prophetic right now
Is “bwoke” a word? It should be.
Out of reach, a/inspirational,unrealistic goals or ideals in fashion = high profits / growth company × public listing steroids.
Negative, dispiriting, confusing messaging = corporate Hari Kari ( ritualistic suicide to save face) before class action lawsuits, pink sheets and delisting
My mother was a fashion designer by trade. She didn’t have much good to say about VS’s products as they were cheap in quality, being poorly made. It didn’t take much for the items in question to fall apart.
VS made its money by selling an image and that approach worked for 20 or 30 years. But, its management forgot that. As we used to say in industry, if it works, don’t fix it and the wiseacres running the company just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
I always loved the VS Fashion Shows. Gorgeous fit girls, fun costume, great performers and songs. Maynot for everyone but we loved it. When they cancelled those I knew it was over for them.
I think the fix was in when VS discontinued its paper catalogues. Who needed Playboy with one of those on hand?
Emphasis “on hand”!
From the same page:
“I’m not gonna let Canada tell me what I do and don’t put in my body”: Phillies catcher gives up quarter million dollars for not complying with jab rules
https://notthebee.com/article/im-not-gonna-let-canada-tell-me-what-i-do-and-dont-put-in-my-body-phillies-catcher-gives-up-quarter-million-dollars-for-not-complying-with-canadas-jab-rules
Playboy? VS? C’mon, BADR, go digital!
Psst – don’t mention hands.
Five years of woke social engineering vs six million years of evolutionary psychology. Surprise, surprise.
Thankfully, none of these spectacularly horribly managed businesses won’t be missed.
The problem is that the management will claim they didn’t think they’d go out of business or, for that matter, accept any responsibility for what happened.
It can often be difficult to figure out which way the causation arrow goes. For instance, the infamous Gillette ad mocking masculinity was not the cause of their massive earnings markdown: that happened in the quarter before.
I think there’s two dynamics going on: one, a company’s profits start plummeting for Reasons and because most large corporations are really shite at knowing where their money comes from, they throw resources at anyone who has a simple explanation and a simple solution (such as “toxic masculinity!” followed by “insult your customer base!”).
Two, a company reaches a point where they’re cruising on a steady income stream, the sharp executives move on and the seatwarmers remaining start doing things for the sake of doing things, again because they’re disconnected from where their money actually comes from. Some grifter with an intersectionality speech convinces them that DIE is the hot new thing that all the cool CEOs are doing and so they get in on it so they can be cool too.
In both cases once the disaster has happened the execs will double down because one thing C-level execs can’t do is admit when they’ve massively c*cked up, so they’ll ride it until bankruptcy or a shareholder revolt. Usually the former.
I’ve got a little list.
It turns out that women (and men) who buy naughty looking little undies for women … want to do so with the visualization of a newly ripened, sexually alluring, BABE … sooooooo hot, you want to touch her heiny … kinda alluring visually HOT!. Yes … it’s FANTASY. They say the largest sexual organ is THE BRAIN! And when my brain sees Fugly “plus-sized” womyn in highly stretched fabric patches buried in their rolls … my largest sexual organ goes to sleep. And don’t even bother with those models who send my Trans-dar pinging in horror …
“bwoke” … hahahaha … pronounced with a predictable lisp
Kenji / Kate – you need to find Barry Kripke saying the word broke.
“Bwoke”.
LOVE IT! Will use it with attribution.
The one comment was very insightful – you buy clothes because you think you will look as good as the model wearing them.
Caveat: This does not apply to drag queens. I rue the day this fad became enforced re-education by librarians.
The prediction for Sephora may not be accurate. I was in there with my wife years ago. The staff all looked like waiters (not waitresses) wearing headsets and an apron filled with brushes. My wife was left to her own devices to find what she wanted, while I followed along, and the one identifiably female staff member kept trying to offer me a makeover.
Did you tell her there are other ways to remove wrinkles than wrinkle cream ?
“…Is “bwoke” a word? It should be…”
Sure, just ask Elmer Fudd.
There`s also the fact that the quality of the lingerie, which was never very good to begin with, has declined badly in the last few years – consumers complained that it fell apart after the second wash. Before that, consumers didn’t seem overly concerned with the quality – Victoria’s Secret sold a fantasy, and that is what they wanted. That was the whole premise of the company – gorgeous, sexy women who sold the idea that if you bought the product, you too could look like that. Never mind that it wasn’t realistic: fantasy requires a willing suspension of disbelief. How stupid of the VS executives to move away from that! Just who did they think was going to wear lingerie advertised by an overtly lesbian athlete?
That’s why nobody watches wimmin’s sports.