Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Controversial advertising campaigns are almost a legitimate right for brands and companies looking to grab the headlines.
Angry reactions are rarely devastating, as the innovation behind surprising commercials often outweighs the outrage they generate.
The infamous Wonderbra bra ads from 1994, which turns 30 this year, are a case in point.
The goal of the poster campaign was to promote the push-up bra – an item of lingerie that first became popular in the 1960s – to a new generation of female customers.
The ads, shot by photographer Ellen von Unwerth, featured supermodel Eva Herzigova wearing nothing more than a pair of black lacy underwear and a matching bra.
Accompanying slogans used in the UK market included phrases such as “Do you mind if I bring some friends?”, while Herzigova leans forward to demonstrate the bra’s gravity-defying technology.
But the campaign’s most famous phrase was much simpler: “Hello Boys.”
Push-up bras were not new, as one of the earliest push-up bras dates back to 1948.
The bold ads, seen here at a bus stop in London, have spread across the UK and USCredit: Sean Dempsey/PA Images/Getty Images
As for the Wonderbra brand, which dates back to the late 1930s as a spin-off from the Canadian Lady Corset Company (later known as Canadelle), it introduced the first push-up bra model in 1963.
Cannadel first registered the name Wonderbra as a trademark in the United States in the 1950s, and later granted British hosiery brand Gossard a license to sell bras in the United Kingdom. But in the early 1990s, Sara Lee Corporation (which had acquired Cannadel and wanted to expand its presence in the intimate apparel market) took back the license and relaunched Wonderbra in the US and UK markets with its own lingerie brand, Playtex. .
The 1994 campaign joined a barrage of advertising in what the British trade press dubbed a “Battle of the Bras” between Playtex and Gossard, which at the time was offering a similar Ultrabra product.
The full-chest look is often seen as a direct response to the ideal body created by supermodels of the 1990s, such as Kate Moss.
At the time, Washington Post writer Roxanne Roberts reported that Hecht’s department store in Washington, D.C., received 1,200 phone calls inquiring about the Wonderbra after running ads ahead of its relaunch.
While the US campaign was less suggestive than its British counterpart (the “Hello Boys” slogan was replaced in favor of vague quips like “Who cares if your hair is bad today”), the commercial still had an impact.
Part of the adverts’ overwhelming success was due to their bold placement, with Herzigova’s image plastered on large billboards across the UK and US.
Models Debbie Fleet (left) and Sandra Cain (right) pose for photos during the Wonderbra hot air balloon launch in London in 1996. Credit: Michael Stephens/PA Images/Getty Images
Whether for its scale or its boldness, the campaign was a shocking departure from the norm for other lingerie brands, which at the time were more discreet – Victoria’s Secret, for example, operated exclusively through a mail-order catalogue.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which has one of the printed posters available for viewing in its library collection, said: “The poster campaign… was unusual as advertising for underwear had previously been largely confined to women’s magazines.”
In the UK, it was rumored that roadside advertisements placed as part of the campaign proved so provocative that they caused collisions with male motorists.
Although there is no evidence that seeing Herzigova’s chest directly caused any accidents, British road safety experts described the billboards – and similar ads that followed, as dangerous and distracting.
The campaign was too controversial for some Britons, and its display in Birmingham, the UK’s second-largest city, was banned by local officials.
Since then, Herzigova’s image has become one of the most memorable advertisements in British history. The campaign was relaunched twice, once in 2011, by the breast cancer charity Coppafeel, and again in 2019, when the famous “Hello Boys” slogan was modified to “Hello Girls” in an attempt to modernize it, although the campaign caused an uproar. Somewhat less..
