不是维密天使，照样可以穿性感内衣

    在数码时代，一个品牌要想获得知名度，在社交媒体上攒人气是个非常好的方法。从这个角度来看，大码女装零售商Lane Bryant公司正走在成功的路上。

    Lane Bryant公司主营加大码女装，最近该公司发布的一则广告成为美国社交网络的热门话题。在这则广告中，一排“微胖界”女模特穿着清凉内衣，热辣出镜，矛头直指内衣品牌“维多利亚的秘密”2014年的广告“天使”。

    琳达•西斯里是Lane Bryant公司的CEO兼总裁，她之所以推出这则名为“我不是天使”的广告，就是为了利用时下正在兴起的“身材正能量”活动，以提振低迷的品牌形象。

    社交媒体分析公司Engagor创始人兼CEO福尔克•勒迈特雷表示，在短短一天内，“我不是天使”就在Facebook和Twitter上被提到了3万次，其中85%的评论都是正面的。该公司在Twitter上的粉丝一天就上涨了4%。80%的回应者是25到44岁的女性，出现频率最高的词就是“重新定义了身材形象”和“祝贺女性”。

    广告中出现的四名超模身穿Cacique系列内衣，暗示性地低声说出“亲爱的，你看见了吗？”。这针对的是“维多利亚的秘密”的“完美身材”广告，后者一经推出就遭到不少网民炮轰，甚至有人请愿要求将其撤下。而“我不是天使”中的超模们人人腰间都缀着“游泳圈”，一名模特的腹部甚至还有卵巢癌手术留下的疤痕。

    CEO西斯里在一份媒体声明中骄傲地宣称：“我们的品牌已经开始转变人们对美的传统观念。”

    Lane Bryant公司的总部位于俄亥俄州哥伦布市。自2013年就任CEO以来，西斯里先后为公司带来了几个“子品牌”和运动女装。（Lane Bryant公司是Ascena Retail集团的子公司，在全美拥有767家商店和7900名员工。）几十年来，一直有许多人嘲笑该公司销售的低档老式胸罩。不过西斯里对行业杂志《Racked》表示：“现在我们已经是一家全新的Lane Bryant公司了。”在此前Lane Bryant供职于“维多利亚的秘密”的母公司Limited集团期间，她还推出过一个名叫Eloquii的平价女装品牌，亲民的价格与Zara有些类似，只不过它也是专门针对微胖界的大码产品。

    广告公司YARD的联合创始人露丝•伯恩斯坦认为，抓住“身材正能量”运动的机会进行宣传，是Lane Bryant公司走出的一步好棋。毕竟如今大码女装的市场正在增长。且不说Forever21、H&M和Wet Seal等品牌都开始做大码女装，就连Calvin Klein、拉夫劳伦、Tommy Hilfiger和Michael Kors也开始进入大码女装市场。其他一些知名品牌，比如Saks Fifth Avenue，则退出了大码女装领域，它的专业大码女装品牌Avenue也宣告破产。

    美国其实并不缺女胖纸：根据美国疾病控制与预防中心的数据，64%的美国妇女都不同程度的体重超标。零售分析公司NPD集团的数据显示，半数美国女性都穿14码以上的衣服，她们的服装购买力占全体美国女性的三分之一，约为每年175亿美元。在过去两年里，瞄准这个小众市场的公司的销售额增长了31%。当然这也离不开一些做大码女装的网络红人推波助澜，一些网络红人还有自己的大码服装品牌。

    Lane Bryant公司的CEO也注意到了这一点，她对《Biz Journal》表示：“我喜欢看博客网站，她们每天都在教我应该怎样考虑这件事。”以美国的博客达人加比•格雷格为例（她自己就是个女胖纸），她推出的“肥基尼”（即肥版比基尼）曾在2013和2014年红极一时，上架不到一小时就被抢购一空。

    “肥基尼”和“我不是天使”只是“身材正能量”运动的最近一次发力。女权主义者几十年来的研究早已表明，媒体大力宣传的那种超瘦的“麻杆型”身材是有害的。多芬公司2004年推出的“真正的美”广告将身材正能量运动带入了主流，这则广告让非专业模特穿着内衣上镜，最终在YouTube上收获了6500万次的点击量。

    不过，摆在Lane Bryant公司前面的路也许依然不好走。研究显示，大码女装并不会令女性感觉更好。有些微胖界人士也对Lane Bryant利与“维多利亚的秘密”勾心斗角表示遗憾。大码女装博主萨拉•康利就表示：“我不认为作为胖女人，我们必须与主流的审美理念作斗争。”

    Lane Bryant公司能否利用此次社交媒体上的良好反响扩大销量，目前还有待观察。Engagor公司的勒迈特雷认为：“消费者的确被这则广告吸引了，但结果还要看该公司能拿出什么产品。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    审校：任文科

    In the digital age, one way for a brand to make itself relevant is to get social media traction. By that measure, plus-size retailer Lane Bryant Inc. is succeeding.

    Lane Bryant Inc., which sells women’s clothing size 14 to 28, became a hot topic in social media after the company released an ad campaign featuring vamping, slightly-large supermodels in slinky lingerie, a not-so-subtle jab at Victoria’s Secret 2014 ads where ultrathin “angels” wore wings.

    Hashtagged #ImNoAngel, the salvo from Lane Bryant’s CEO and President Linda Heasley aims to revitalize the flagging brand by cashing in on the growing “body-positive” movement.

    In one day, #ImNoAngel garnered 30,000 Facebook and Twitter mentions, 85% of them positive, according to Folke Lemaitre, CEO and founder of Engagor, an analytics firm monitoring social media. Twitter followers were growing 4 percent a day. Activity was 80% women 25 to 44. The terms used most often: “redefining body image,” and “celebrates women.”

    The ad’s four supermodels, wearing the Cacique lingerie line, suggestively whisper lines such as, “I mean honey, have you seen all this?” It aims at Victoria’s Secret’s “Perfect Body” campaign, which sparked petitions opposing the images. #ImNoAngel ads show some small rolls of flesh, and one model’s abdominal scar from ovarian cancer surgery.

    “Our brand has begun to change the conversation of traditional notions of beauty,” CEO Heasley crowed in a press statement.

    CEO of the Columbus, Ohio-based company since 2013, Heasley has brought a few designer “sub-brands” to Lane Bryant, and chic athletic wear. (Lane Bryant is a unit of Ascena Retail group, with 767 stores and 7,900 U.S. employees.) For decades, Lane Bryant was derided as a down-market mall staple selling outdated, stretchy, dowdy coverups. “It’s a new Lane Bryant,” Heasley told industry journal Racked. Previously at the Limited, she added Eloquii, a fast-fashion, runway-inspired line similar to Zara’s, in large sizes.

    Capitalizing on the the “body-positive”movement is a good move for Lane Bryant, contends Ruth Bernstein, co-founder of YARD advertising agency, whose clients include Henri Bendel and Banana Republic. The campaign, after all, arrives as the the plus-size market is growing. Trendy, new entrants include Forever21, H&M, and Wet Seal. Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors license their names to plus-size lines. Yet other big names, including Saks Fifth Avenue, have exited; plus-sizebrand Avenue went bankrupt.

    The problem is not a lack of large women: 64% of U.S. women are overweight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Half of U.S. women wear size 14 or larger, and they hold about one-third of women’s overall apparel purchasing power—about $17.5 billion a year, says retail analysts NPD Group. Small niche companies addressing this market have seen sales rise 31% in the past two years, helped by a tidal wave of plus-fashion bloggers — some with branded clothing lines.

    Lane Bryant’s CEO has noticed. “I love going on bloggers’ sites,” Heasley told Biz Journal. “They teach me every day how we should be thinking about this.” And perhaps selling like this: curvy blogger Gabbi Gregg’s “fatkinis” – large two-piece suits — went viral in 2013 and 2014 and sold out in an hour.

    Fatkinis and #ImNoAngel are the latest wave in the body-positive movement, built on decades of feminist researchshowing the harmful effects of media images of rail-thin women. Dove’s landmark “Real Beauty” campaign, begun in 2004, took it mainstream, posing non-professionals in their underwear, eventually getting 65 million YouTube views.

    Still, Lane Bryant might have a tougher road. Studies show, for instance, that larger models don’t actually make womenfeel better. And some in the curvy community bemoaned the cat fight aspect of the campaign. “I don’t believe that as plus size women we must be pitted against mainstream ideals to be seen as beautiful,” plus-size fashion blogger Sarah Conley said.

    It remains to be seen whether Lane Bryant can parlay this social media buzz into sales. “Consumers are intrigued,” says Engagor’s Lemaitre. “But it will be up to the company to deliver.”