Alex Duval Smith in Paris
Do you have nightmares in which you are walking down a crowded street wearing nothing but a shower cap or a bra, and you are powerless to do anything about it? Susanna Hailstone, an executive with the LSD advertising agency, does. “I think it is quite a common dream among women – it’s about powerlessness and being exposed in public,” she says.
No stranger to nudity, it was Hailstone who, three years ago, put Eva Herzigova in a Wonderbra alongside the caption “Hello Boys”. The message of that poster, she says, was in stark contrast to a series of Wonderbra adverts developed in France and currently running in magazines such as Paris-Match and French Elle. The French ads have a “retro” look and are straight out of Hailstone’s nightmares. In one, a woman in a launderette finds her cardigan has shrunk. To the great delight of a boy looking up at her, this reveals her Wonderbra.
In another, a woman’s jumper is unravelled by a dog who has caught hold of a loose thread, revealing her bra to the city gents passing by. “On ne sait jamais [you never know]” is the caption on both pictures, whose theme reportedly aims to be an antidote to the trend for women to be in control.
“The difference between the original Wonderbra campaign and this French one is all about whether the women are flaunting their sexuality, which is something assertive, or having it flaunted by something outside their control,” Hailstone says. “They are old-fashioned and leave nothing to the imagination. The fact that the pictures are dressed up in a retro look does not make them any less naff.” France, the world’s number one lingerie-buying market, does not seem to have noticed.
“There is not the same amount of awareness among French women of images in the media relating to their status. Most French women do not think they are victims in a sexist society,” says Regan Cramer, a United States feminist who has lived in France for 15 years and chairs a shelter organisation called Du Ct Des Femmes (On Women’s Side).