Highlighting Inner Beauty to Sell Underclothes

Advertiser: VF Corp.

Agency: Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.

Challenge: Find the right message for pitching its Vanity Fair line of lingerie to women over 35.

The Ads: Four print ads show shapely women in revealing undergarments and advance the idea that attractiveness improves with age. “Time is not the enemy of women. It is a filter,” says one ad. “It is a fine-mesh screen that . . . filters out the muck of insecurity and self-doubt. Time . . . has made me wiser, freer, better, some say sexier.” Each ad ends with the tagline, “At last, you’re comfortable,” meaning that women are not only comfortable in Vanity Fair lingerie, but they are also comfortable with themselves. This is the first time Vanity Fair has directed its pitches to this group of women.

Comment: In pitching lingerie to women over 35, Vanity Fair talks about inner beauty. But in addition to filtering the muck of self-doubt, the models in the ads seem to have shed the wrinkles of age, with nary a stretch mark or bulge among them. So the words don’t quite fit with the images in the ads. On the other hand, does anyone really want to see themselves exactly as they are? These ads attempt to show women their idealized selves--inside and out. $$$

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Ads are rated from $ to $$$$, based on tastefulness and probable effectiveness, with $$$$ being best.