Has Victoria’s Secret Already Pulled Controversial Teen-Targeted Collection?

One of the items that has parents angry at Victoria's Secret.

One of the items that has parents angry at Victoria’s Secret.

Earlier this month, Victoria’s Secret launched an ad campaign featuring the slogan “Bright Young Things” for its Spring Break collection. Included in this collection were items like panties with “call me” written on the front or “wild” on the rear end — all of which seemed to marketed toward teens. Not surprisingly, some parents were upset and the collection appears to have vanished.

Since yesterday, when news outlets began picking up on the parental outrage over these products, several items from the Spring Break line can no longer be found on the Victoria’s Secret website, and the link to that collection’s page now redirects to the VS homepage.

The hubbub over the Bright Young Things campaign began earlier this year, when the CFO of Limited Brands (which owns Victoria’s Secret) discussed the upcoming line at a conference.

“When somebody’s 15 or 16 years old, what do they want to be?” he asked. “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.”

Since the items hit shelves a couple weeks back, some parents have been very vocal in their opposition, accusing the lingerie retailer of trying to sexualize adolescent females.

“I don’t want my daughter to ever think that to be popular or even attractive she has to have emblazon words on her bottom,” wrote one father in a blog post that tore up the Internet yesterday.

Another parent has started a petition at Change.org, asking the company to pull the line, though it looks like that may not be necessary.

In its defense, Victoria’s Secret has maintained that “PINK is a brand for college-aged women. Despite recent rumors, we have no plans to introduce a collection for younger women. ‘Bright Young Things’ was a slogan used in conjunction with the college spring break tradition.”

We’re going to try to contact VS to see if we can get a response, though the company has a history of ignoring our comment requests, so we’re not holding our breath.

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