This advertisement was created by Victoria’s Secret to promote their new fragrance, Dream Angels Wish. The picture in this advertisement portrays a beautiful Caucasian woman of her late twenties. In the picture, the woman is wearing nothing but a pair of lacy underwear. She is holding a dandelion in her right hand near her mouth, and with the same arm crossing her naked chest. The woman is sitting on a bed in a dark room. This is a two page advertisement. On the second page, an image of Victoria’s Secret’s new fragrance is shown.

The woman in this picture is beautiful. Although she is very skinny, she has a beautiful face and figure. Girls today look at these models and think this is how they need to look. Today, the average height and weight of a model is anywhere from 5’8” to 6’0”, and their weight is between 100 and 125 pounds. This is significantly less than the average height and weight of a teenage girl. The average height of a teenage girl is 5’4”, and the average weight is anywhere between 116 and 138 pounds. Advertisements, like this one, have led to many cases of eating disorders. According to America’s Mental Health Channel, advertisers that use physical attractiveness to sell their product have put a tremendous amount of pressure on teens as to what their physical appearance should look like. Teen People magazine conducted a survey, and 27 percent of girls felt the media has pressured them to have the “perfect body.” This is just another advertisement that falls into the category.

The woman on the bed with no clothes on symbolizes a soft sexuality. The intent is to advertise the new fragrance, but it looks as if they are trying to sell sex. This fragrance is for teenage girls and young women. How is this appropriately advertising towards their intended target market? Although this advertisement is not directed towards the correct market, somehow, it still manages to accomplish their goal. Although, women can still relate to it since this advertisement is soft and touching. However, most women will not want to look at an advertisement of a virtually naked woman sitting on a bed, in a dark room, wishing for sex.

There are a few hidden messages within this advertisement. The fact that the model is sitting on a bed in a dark room represents dreaming. The model holding the dandelion (also called a “wish flower”) to her mouth represents her making a wish. The advertisement portrays an innocent woman, which could represent an angel. The name of the new fragrance is Dream Angels Wish, which is perfectly demonstrated through the hidden messages within this advertisement. Although these hidden messages aren’t exactly bad, it can still be offending to people by giving off the message that if you purchase this perfume, you will wish for sex too. Maybe your wish will come true.

The beauty of the woman in the advertisement is offending to other woman and teens that don’t look as perfect as she does. Not all women look flawless and have “the perfect body.” Having perfectly groomed hair, manicured nails, flawless skin, a beautiful figure, plenty of makeup on, with perfect eyes, and bright pink lipstick on her luscious lips, is very unrealistic. The pressure this advertisement creates is that all women should look like the woman in the picture, or it gives the message that if you want to look beautiful, you should look like her.

Accuracy is another problem. The fact that the size of the bottle of perfume is larger than the model’s face makes this advertisement inaccurate. Exaggeration and intensifying the product is inaccurately informing the customer. Even though this advertisement shows where you can purchase the new fragrance (in stores and online) it doesn’t give any information regarding the price. Leaving out information and incorrectly demonstrating the product alone makes this advertisement inaccurate and bad.

Advertisements and media are powerful. Portraying a bad advertisement to their audience not only makes Victoria’s Secret look bad, but can send out a wrong message. Statistics, like the one previously mentioned, show that girls feel pressured by these advertisements, and that is only leading to girls becoming depressed and developing eating disorders. Being cautious with how products are demonstrated is crucial, otherwise people could potentially look down upon the company, and that could ultimately lead to less business and less sales.