Gisele’s Lingerie Ads Draw Fire From Brazil’s Female Lawmakers

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen has recently launched her own lingerie line named Hope and the first commercials to air for the label have caused quite a stir amongst the female lawmakers of her home country according to reports by The Guardian. The advertisements, which have been airing on Brazilian television in the country’s native language of Portuguese, suggest that the world famous Victoria’s Secret Angel is causing all kinds of problems from car accidents to overly expensive shopping sprees which she remedies by putting on Hope Lingerie and coming onto her husband so as to make him forget the troubles she has started. A voice-over that accompanies the image of Gisele in Hope Lingerie reminds viewers “You’re a Brazilian woman – use your charm.”

Government officials from the women’s secretariat in Brasilia were anything but charmed by these ad spots. Considering that less than one year ago Brazil elected its first female president many women lawmakers perceive the ads, which have already been criticized as sexist and encouraging the objectification of women, to be a step in the wrong direction. An official statement released by a group of female lawmakers reads: “The campaign promotes the misguided sterotype of a woman as a sexual object of her husband and ignores the major advances we have achieved in deconstructing sexist practices and thinking.”

Gisele has not responded to the official statement yet, considering that Hope was launched a little more then a week ago it is no surprise that they were not prepared to respond to this degree of negative backlash. Though it is certain that the supe will have to weigh in soon considering how deeply involved she has been in this label. In a statement she released last week Gisele acknowledge that Hope Lingerie has long been a dream of hers, saying “Life is made of dreams and I’m very happy to announce that now you will know the Brazilian intimate. My dream come true is for Hope.”

Whether your in Gisele’s corner or with the women’s secretariat on this, one thing we can all agree on is that Portuguese doesn’t translate very easily to English.