The New Wonderbra Advert Accused Of Being Sexist

3 December 2018, 07:54

The new Wonderbra advert
The new Wonderbra advert. Picture: Wonderbra

The new advert for Wonderbra has been accused of being sexist by feminist campaigners.

The lingerie company's new advert references their famous poster from 25 years ago, in which Eva Herzigova posed in a Wonderbra next to the slogan "Hello Boys".

The updated billboard, to be released today, has another model in a bra with the slogan "Hello me".

They claim the point of the advert is to "empower women to express their individuality with confidence in themselves."

Heather Nogueira, Marketing Manager at the UK arm of parent company Hanesbrands, said: "We believe that the old cliché of women looking sexy to cater to someone else has been replaced with women wanting to feel sexy on their own terms.

"This campaign is our way of empowering women to express their individuality with confidence in themselves [...] we learnt a lot from Hello Boys, but it is now time for Wonderbra to embrace the new dispensation of female self-empowerment."≈

But campaigners have accused the advert of sexism.

Julie Bindel told the Sunday Express: "Wonderbra's 'Hello Boys' advert, the scourge of the feminist movement throughout the mid-1990s, was so sexist it was almost a parody.

"We are being fed the guff that the new slogan is less about appealing to sleazy men and more about targeting 'empowered, liberated women'.

"This, we are told, is about women wishing to feel sexy 'for themselves'. If you ask me, this is the same nonsense, different era."