A lingerie brand has apologised for an ad that mentioned Ryan Reynolds
(Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for WSJ Magazine Innovators Awards)A lingerie brand has apologised for its ad that mentioned Ryan Reynolds, after people found it “creepy”.
Harper Wilde released an ad for a bra that said: “This bra is like if Ryan Reynolds was gently holding up your breasts and whispering in your ear that you are doing a good job… honestly.”
But rather than find it charming, Twitter users were quick to call the ad “scary” and “nightmare fuel”.
nightmare fuel https://t.co/NWjTZTIezf
— kiki 🐸 (@paulsighmon) January 28, 2023
Others took issue with the fact that the ad focused on male validation, with one Twitter user saying: “really happy to see we’re making bras about men validating us again.”
really happy to see we’re making bras about men validating us again https://t.co/Ybj7UqIFBa
— kaitlyn (@kaitzeit) January 28, 2023
The lingerie company later apologised and explained that the ad was actually taken from a customer review, but that their name and rating had been cut off in the Instagram ad.
Harper Wilde said in a statement: “For context, this is actually a review by a real customer originally meant to run with a series of other reviews — we thought it was cheeky enough to run as an ad, but the attribution was cut off at the bottom by the ad interface (original ad series attached!).
“The core of our brand is ultimately about designing bras by boob-havers for boob-havers while divesting from the male gaze. While we clearly have customers who are straight women, this single review doesn’t represent our entire brand.”
They added: “Our small team is 99 per cent women and we absolutely do not condone creepy non-consensual boob-grabbing of any kind, even in a figurative hypothetical bra-review. We’re so sorry this creeped anyone out! Absolutely not our intention and we’ve pulled the ad from running.”
Other customer reviews featured in the ads included: “If butter and a cloud made a baby. It’s like that,” and “Look no further, cuz this is it. Heaven, in bra form”, as well as, “I want to wear it forever. I want it in every colour. I want to bequeath it my inheritance when I die.”
