“Nobody is nobody.”
This slogan is from the latest campaign of Shanghai’s emerging lingerie brand NEIWAI, which shows six real women with “different types of beauty”. They invited six women who have different concerns on their body’s “imperfection”, they either have scars, or have belly, as well as large breasts, flat chest, ageing skin, pregnant. These “defects” lead many women feeling dissatisfied with their own body, also represents the real body of most ordinary women. However, the women in the film all accept their real bodies from the bottom of their hearts and overcome all the social prejudices that come with it. They break the inherent aesthetic standard of “thinness as beauty” and define their own “beauty”, which is true, confident, diverse and beautiful of being themselves.
It is a campaign for spring/summer 2020 series, which has been planned since July 2019, with the theme of “Body Diversity”. The brand invited girls with different body shapes to shoot the film, which was helmed by photographer Luo Yang. NEIWAI owner illustrated, “We insist on making designs for different body shapes, and we also expect every real interpretation.” NEIWAI dedicated to encouraging people to explore and understand their inner selves and the real world.
Is NEIWAI’s campaign a microcosm of the transformation of women’s status in China?
Women have been defined and expressed in all types of media all over the centuries. Specifically, in the category of advertising, female characters have mostly been constructed and narrated in some stereotypical roles such as housewives and flower vases. With the rise of neo-liberalism and rapid expansion of the number of female consumers, more and more advertisers are desperate to meet the requirements of female consumers, followed by the emergence of ‘femvertising’ (feministic advertising). However, ads that give a voice to women don’t indicate a successful revenge of women. Stuart-Hall (1980) conveyed that popular feminism is allocated at a ‘terrain’ of struggle. Advertisers and manufacturers tend to sale ’empowerment’ to their female consumers. Banet-Weiser (2018) claimed that advertising is a way to define material products to be visible, recognisable and accessible. For consumers, buying a brand who strength female power equals to buying empowerment to female, a way to challenge the patriarchal society. Furthermore, many scholars argued that all these social debate and ideology are decided by the ruling class and head of companies on contemporary knowledge systems. Female consumers are utilised in this free economy system, while they occupied in the majority of purchasing power in recent years.
What commercial benefits does NEIWAI obtained through operating those idea？ Advertising itself is a product of market. Whether a brand commercial or a company advertising, their goal is to make a profit. So, the promotion of feminism in the advertising is a customer-oriented service from companies, in order to sell their commodities or services. As a female-oriented underwear brand, NEIWAI has to meet the psychological needs of women who are seeking to be understood. The term of ‘body shaming’ meets the current trend of feministic discourse and is in line with the brand’s values and intentions. “No body is nobody” expresses a point of view that wants women to focus more on themselves, buying a feminism brand (implies NEIWAI) that suits you is a method to self-love. As the original commodities which are defined as feminism and empowerment, it could stimulate the consumption of female groups. Meanwhile, NEIWAI serves various kind of underwear to an expended body types among women. The branded content shows six different group of females, display the diversity of products they provide by appeals public to appreciate the beauty of diverse body-shape and individuals.