Last week, that is exactly what Victoria's Secret tried to do. In an interview with Vogue about the brand's annual fashion show, CMO Ed Razek said, “We're nobody's third love, we're their first love.” It was a not-so-subtle attack on ThirdLove, a five-year-old startup founded by former Google executive Heidi Zak.
上周,维多利亚的秘密首席营销官Ed Razek在接受杂志《Vogue》采访时谈到了今年的维密秀,他说:“我们可不是别人的备胎,维密是正房。”这番话无形中攻击了谷歌前执行官Heidi Zak五年前创立的品牌ThirdLove。

On Sunday, Zak responded to Razek's zinger in a full-page ad in the New York Times, saying, “You market to men and sell a male fantasy to women . . . Your show may be a “fantasy” but we live in reality. Our reality is that women wear bras in real life as they go to work, breastfeed their children, play sports, care for ailing parents, and serve their country. Haven't we moved beyond outdated ideas of femininity and gender roles?”
周天,Zak在《纽约时报》中用整个版面回应了Razek:“维密的市场对准男性客户,将男性的幻想贩卖给女性,确实很梦幻,但我们就活在现实中。我们理解的现实,是女性穿着内衣工作、哺乳、运动、照顾父母、为国家服务。难道我们就不能撇去(维密品牌这种)过时的有关女性和性别角色的观点吗?”

It wasn't just ThirdLove that Razek offended. Among Razek's many inflammatory comments in the Vogue piece, he said:
维秘高管得罪的不只是ThirdLove,他曾在《Vogue》上发表过多段偏激言论:

“Victoria's Secret has a specific image, has a point of view. It has a history . . . Everybody had the conversation about Savage [x Fenty] having the pregnant model in the show. We watch this, we're amused by it, but we don't milk it. And all of these things that they've ‘invented,’ we have done and continue to do.”
维多利亚的秘密有独特的形象,有立场有历史。每个人都在谈论我们怀孕的模特Savage,我们乐在其中,但是从未压榨过模特,大家讨论的东西我们都做过,也会继续下去。

“We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don't. Our show is the only branded special in the world, seen in 190 countries, by 1 billion 6 million people; 45% more people saw it last year than the year before.”
2000年,我们做过大尺码内衣的电视节目,但是没人看,现在还是如此。维密秀是全球品牌唯一的特别节目,在190个国家播出,观众数高达10亿六百万人收看,去年的收看人数比前年增加了45%。

“Does the brand think about diversity? Yes. Do we offer larger sizes? Yes. So it's like, why don't you do 50? Why don't you do 60? Shouldn't you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don't think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It's a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is.”
维密考虑过多样性吗?当然,我们有大尺码的内衣吗?当然有。所以为什么不做50或是60的内衣?为什么不用跨性别模特呢?我觉得没必要。这场秀是一场梦幻秀,是42分钟的娱乐特别节目。

The last comment, in particular, drew a lot of ire. The Model Alliance, a model's advocacy group, put out a statement saying it was disappointed by Razek's comments about trans and plus-size models.
最后一则言论引发了极大愤怒。模特支持公司Model Alliance发布声明,表示对Razek关于跨性别和大尺码内衣模特的言论非常失望。

This prompted Razek to apologize for his remarks. Sort of. He said, “We've had transgender models come to castings . . . And like many others, they didn't make it . . . But it was never about gender.” (It's possible Razek has never heard of the concept of unconscious bias.)
Razek因此道歉:“我们之前也考虑过跨性别模特,但是他们和其他选手一样,没通过面试,和性别无关。”(大概Razek从来没听说过无意识歧视的概念)

(翻译:阿忙)