This lingerie campaign has people’s panties in a twist.
Bra brand Bluebella is facing backlash for its latest ad campaign, featuring three players from Great Britain’s women’s Olympic rugby team clad in lacy lingerie.
The campaign, titled “Strong Is Beautiful” shows Celia Quansah, Ellie Boatman and Jasmine Joyce dressed in black bras and underwear as they pose on the football field.
According to Bluebella, the ads aim to highlight the beauty of women with athletic bodies, which “have historically been ignored by the fashion industry and stigmatized by society.”
They are also designed to highlight the startling number of young girls who drop out of sports because of body image issues.
But for some consumers, the “regressive” campaign has missed the mark.
Critics slammed the campaign for “sexualizing” the athletes, branding the ad as “regressive” and “insulting” to women.
This is exactly what young girls do not need to see,” one critic, who called the ad a “very poor move,” wrote on Instagram.
“Instead of empowering women in sport we once again see this profit the male gaze and continue the objectification and sexualization of the female body.”
Former tennis player Martina Navratilova wrote on X that the campaign was “regressive,” while former pro swimmer Sharron Davies shared similar sentiments.
Even former distance runner Mara Yamauchi dubbed the ad “exploitative, demeaning, sexist, regressive rubbish,” per The Telegraph.
The backlash has prompted a statement from Team GB, who said, per The Independent, that the official organization is not “involved or affiliated in any way” with the adverts.
However, some fans have rejoiced that the women’s bodies are being celebrated in an ad, calling it “beautiful” and “refreshing.”
Others argued it was no different than male athletes appearing in Calvin Klein underwear ads.
“Our #StrongIsBeautiful campaign was born out of the fact that girls give up sports more readily than boys, partly because society does not equate the look of a strong female body with being beautiful or feminine,” the brand wrote on Instagram.
“If young women do not equate strength with feminine beauty, it is a problem far beyond sport.”
The Olympic trio who appeared in the campaign, however, emphasized the body image issues they faced at a young age, being told they “look like a man” because of their muscular build, they told the Evening Standard.
“I think one of the biggest challenges for women’s rugby is people’s perception that you can’t be feminine and play rugby, that one comes up frequently,” said Quansah, 28. “People love to say women shouldn’t play rugby or you’re too pretty to play rugby and all of those things that just aren’t true.”
The aim of the campaign, then, was to show young girls that they can be both feminine and athletic.
“The one thing I’d say to girls regarding body confidence is to enjoy who you are,” said Joyce, 28. “You’re never going be perfect and there’s always going to be parts of your body you’re self-conscious of but embrace it all.”
