Good news: big corporations still don’t understand how spin works. Or maybe Victoria’s Secret just didn’t understand the extent to which Baltimore activist group FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture had tied the brand’s shoelaces together with a satirical website advertising consent-themed underwear (in opposition to VS’s rapey “Come And Get It”-type products). Why else would they still be on the dead wrong side of this cultural skirmish nearly two weeks later?

Victoria’s Secret, as part of the body-shaming-industrial complex, had instantly fought back against PinkLovesConsent.com, insisting that the site would “confuse” their loyal customers and that their official logo was being infringed upon. Most of the people confused, however, were the company’s own employees. Most Internet-savvy folks realized immediately that Victoria’s Secret would never put that curvaceous a woman of color on the front page of a new brand launch.

The message itself was obviously lost on whatever image consultants they’ve got working on the top floor over there—and apparently it is too much a threat to the company’s established line of flirtatious, naughty-girl, you’re-wearing-this-for-the-man-in-your-life undergarments. Because right away they should have been folding these guerilla designs into their catalog and donating a percentage of the profits to women’s shelters or something. How easy would that be, and how much goodwill does it get you? But no, they’d rather lawyer up and debate the definition of  “parody” in court. ONWARD, CAPITALIST SOLDIERS. 


Follow Miles Klee on Twitter.