A fashion TV ad that claims to be the most natural by celebrating, lumps, bumps, wobbles, jiggles, boobs, tums and life’s perfect, imperfections will launch today (Thursday 22 March) from on-line retailer Simply Be.
The empowering campaign runs for six weeks and turns its back on the conventions of usual fashion advertising where in many cases the imagery is over polished, over retouched, unrealistic and unachievable.
All the models staring range from a size 16 through to a 20 – challenging the conventional normal size 10 or below - and are shown flaunting all their curves in Simply Be Lingerie with the strapline ‘Rules? Rewritten’.
The five curve models and body positivity activists, include Australian Model La’Tecia Thomas and Atlanta-born Precious Lee. The TV advert is proudly unapologetic and champions women’s natural beauty and aims to normalise the lumps and bumps that all women have.
Alongside the strong images, a voiceover talks about curves not meaning compromise; “Fashion that fits? Now that would be a plus. The styles we want, the sizes we need. And if we want it, we’ll wear it. Rules? Rewritten.”
“We wanted a campaign that really celebrated how wonderful women’s bodies are. Hopefully, through applauding shape and size in this way we will encourage people to be their true self, while at the same time showing that curves really don’t mean compromise,” said Ann Steer, chief customer officer for N Brown Group plc which owns Simply Be.
“Our job at Simply Be is to inspire women and make them feel amazing, irrespective of size and where better to start than underwear? Surely, its time that other fashion retailers dropped the one size fits all approach, started celebrating difference and tore up the fashion advertising ‘rule book’.
Disruption of this nature is no stranger to Simply Be. The campaign builds on the momentum of a recent protest staged by the on-line fashion retailer outside London Fashion Week, which saw Hayley Hasselhoff lead an army of eight defiant curvy models, ranging from sizes 16 to 26, questioning the lack of curves in the female fashion industry, dressed in nothing but Simply Be lingerie.
The protest received floods of positive feedback from Simply Be’s community across social media, with users commenting:
“Thanks @simplybeuk for flying the flag for us and helping us to believe we don’t need to conform to societies ridiculous ideologies of beauty, we are all beautiful whatever shape or size we are and you help us to feel that way!”
“Love this...fashion should not have limits or restrictions! Great fashion for every size!”
“The best thing I’ve seen!”
Research carried out by Simply Be last year proves that diversity sells; over half of women surveyed by the retailer claimed that super skinny models put them off when purchasing clothing, whilst three quarters stated that seeing a model larger than themselves wouldn’t alienate them when it came to making a purchase.
Keeping up the pace of the brand, which announced its revenue up 21% YOY at the end of 2017, the campaign also launches a brand new logo – a clean, simple design that represents the bold, confident and energetic feel of the brand.
The activity is also supported by two digital videos depicting the retailer’s extensive denim and footwear range, the online retailer’s spring campaign aims to showcase its USP when it comes to these three particular categories; shoes in varying width sizes, lingerie up to an L cup and denim in a range of shapes, made to fit curves.
Watch the Simply Be Spring Campaign here: https://youtu.be/AQJQHuF_PL8
The SS18 collection is available online now at www.simplybe.co.uk.
