As a college student, I can’t leave my dorm without seeing Victoria’s Secret PINK merchandise around almost every corner. In every classroom I enter, someone is probably wearing PINK. Backpacks, sweatshirts, T-shirts, pants, shorts, water bottles, phone cases… you name it, I’ve seen it wandering campus. What can I say? It’s a popular brand among the college crowd. Bright colors, cheeky slogans, rhinestones and sequins. It’s cute, flirty and comfortable. Their bras and underwear are just as popular, and for the same reasons–comfy and cute.
But while PINK is fun and flirty for the college crowd, many of the cheeky slogans printed across their merchandise are not age-appropriate for younger girls. Which is why I understand the plight of the parents upset over PINK’s newest Spring Break inspired line, titled “Bright Young Things.” Parents are concerned that this line is being marketed towards younger, middle-school-aged girls, says huffingtonpost.com. It features underwear with slogans that read “feeling lucky?” and “call me,” which are things I, too, would be concerned about a 12- or 13-year-old girl wearing.
The problem I have with the backlash from this campaign is that I can’t find any substantial proof that this line is being marketed towards middle-schoolers any more than the rest of PINK’s merchandise. Besides the name of the collection, “Bright Young Things,” there’s seemingly no difference between this particular line and the rest of PINK’s merchandise. There are some parents claiming that the models in the ads look too young, but as a 19-year-old, they all seem to be at least my age, if not older. At a conference, Victoria’s Secret CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer was quoted as saying, “When somebody’s 15 or 16 years old, what do they want to be? They want to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college, and that’s part of the magic of what we do at PINK.” Fifteen and 16 is still young, but there is a pretty sizable difference between a freshman or sophomore in high school and middle-school-aged girls. The clothing is very similar to everything else carried in PINK stores. I really can’t say the outrage based on this campaign in particular is warranted, as proof of the crime is just not there.
As I said, 15 and 16 is still very young, especially to be wearing underwear that says “call me” across the front. But not everything in PINK is emblazoned with inappropriate messages, and I think it’s the parents’ job to make sure their daughters understand the difference between a pair of cotton, bikini-style panties with polka-dots and a lace thong with the words “feeling lucky?” scribbled across the front, as far as age-appropriateness goes.
PINK has officially removed the “Bright Young Things” promotional materials from their website, and the “call me” and “feeling lucky?” underwear is no longer listed in their merchandise. I do think this is for the best, but as far as PINK goes, I think their only sin is a poor choice of words.