Courtesy Victoria's Secret
- Victoria's Secret launched a new campaign with supermodels Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima, and Candice Swanepoel.
- Skims fans allege that Victoria Secret stole the concept from a campaign Kim Kardashian did.
- The models became famous for posing for Victoria's Secret, long before Skims.
Supermodels Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima, and Candice Swanepoel are back in Victoria's Secret bras and underwear for the company's latest marketing campaign.
The iconic models made their debuts in the late '90s and early 2000s. Their photos in Victoria's Secret catalogs made them household names — the brand even dubbed them "Angels" to further cement their place as modeling royalty.
But fans of Kim Kardashian's shapewear brand, Skims, are mad about the supermodels' return to VS, claiming the company stole the idea for its campaign from one that Kardashian did last year.
In April 2022, Skims tapped Swanepoel and fellow supermodels Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, and Alessandra Ambrosio — all of whom were former Victoria's Secret Angels. Kardashian also posed alongside the women, and they all wore neutral bras, underwear, and bodysuits from the brand's Fit Everybody collection.
Critics on social media pointed out that the new Victoria's Secret campaign looks eerily similar, even down to the name: It's called "The Icon" while Kardashian's was "Icons." The photography for the Victoria's Secret campaign by Mikael Jansson is primarily done in black and white, but some color photos mimic the high-exposure style that Skims often uses in its campaigns.
Two things working against Victoria Secret here.
— Kennyatta (@ItsKennyatta) August 9, 2023
1. SKIMS already doing an icons campaign and it having a bigger push on socials with a more “fun” roll out.
2. This feels like a soft launch which isn’t going to break through the noise that their customers see daily online.
Content creator and brand consultant Blakely Thornton posted the Victoria's Secret images on his Instagram story with the captions, "Get that check girls, but this is literally a Skims campaign," and "Someone in Victoria's Secret marketing should be fired."
That said, in marketing nothing is sacred, and oftentimes brands use replication and overt criticism as a way to control the conversation. We all remember the Aviation Gin ad Ryan Reynolds' marketing company Maximum Effort released mocking the infamous Pelton wife commercials. And of course there was the "Get a Mac" campaign, a series of commercials in which actor Justin Long portrayed Apple's products as cool and laid-back compared to Microsoft's.
And in 2018, the lingerie startup ThirdLove slammed Victoria's Secret in a New York Times ad after its chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, made controversial comments about plus-size and trans models.
Victoria's Secret and Skims did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Swanepoel posted about her return to modeling for Victoria's Secret in an Instagram post. "What a wonderful sense of belonging to come home to my VS family for this Iconic campaign!" she wrote. "The place I created countless memories and found my power."
Headlined by Naomi Campbell, another iconic model of the '90s, the Victoria's Secret campaign also features younger talents Adut Akech, Hailey Bieber, Paloma Elsesser, Sui He, and Emily Ratajkowski sporting the new line of bras, underwear, and lingerie in neutrals and bright colors featuring a subtle logo print and gold hardware.
According to a press release, some of the models in this campaign will appear in the Victoria's Secret "WorldTour" fashion show later this year.