Fans accused Victoria's Secret's new inclusive campaign of 'perpetuating body dysmorphia'

After the 2014 'Perfect Body' backlash, Victoria's Secret rebuilt itself around the VS Collective — a roster of diverse women replacing the Angels — promising a more inclusive brand. But it did not want to abandon the glamour that built it.

Hadid, a VS Collective member, starred in the new campaign and announced it on Instagram. Her post became the battleground: excited comments from fans, and from critics accusations of 'perpetuating body dysmorphia to young women' and comparisons to heroin chic, the notoriously thin 1990s trend, with her visible ribs cited as evidence.

A heated online debate over whether the rebrand had changed anything — one commenter summed up: 'You don't have to remove the glamour to be inclusive' — and a public clapback from the chief executive, who said the brand still 'embraces very sexy'.

Victoria's Secret spent years recovering from its 'Perfect Body' era by rebuilding around the VS Collective, a group of diverse women meant to replace the fantasy Angels with a more inclusive face for the brand. Bella Hadid was part of that collective — and in July 2023 her announcement that she was starring in a new VS campaign set off the argument the rebrand was supposed to have ended.

The photo Hadid shared showed her ribs. While many fans cheered, others accused the brand of 'perpetuating body dysmorphia to young women', with commenters explicitly invoking heroin chic, the 1990s trend built on emaciated models. The criticism landed precisely because it came from the audience the rebrand had courted: inclusivity was meant to change who the brand showed, and critics said the bodies hadn't changed.

The company's response split the difference. Its chief executive pushed back, saying the brand still 'embraces very sexy' — a defence of the glamour that satisfied neither the critics who wanted structural change nor the traditionalists who felt the rebrand had already gone too far.

VS Collective signalled inclusion while the campaign imagery kept the same body codes — the contradiction surfaced in a single post.

The rebrand's target audience was exactly the audience doing the criticising.

The 'embrace very sexy' answer tried to hold both positions and endorsed neither.

A rebrand is judged at every touchpoint: one campaign photo can undo years of inclusivity signalling when the old aesthetic is still doing the talking.

The debate ran across Hadid's comments section and entertainment coverage; the material records no change of course at the brand.