Agent Provocateur window displays in House of Fraser

[Fairyflaps]

These 2 images are among several massive photos filling the window displays at our local House of Fraser store promoting Agent Provocateur. The windows face onto the towns main pedestrianised shopping street, so there is no avoiding them if you go into town.

Am I right in thinking these are not appropriate images for such a public space? Within the lingerie department in the store maybe, but not on the High Street.

Going into the store and talking to the manager has not been successful. She just said that decisions on window displays was made by their head office, and I would have to take it up with them. Their website says it may take several days for them to respond to an email, and I have not been able to find a phone number for their head office.

What do you think?
And any suggestions of how I can complain more effectively?

Chatty that post really sums up well how I felt as a girl and still feel now.

I get a similar reponse to ads that are "warning" us > like the TFL cab one with a massive picture of a screaming woman in a cab that was up in the tube. In that case it's more about beign reminded you are prey, and of course men are also reminded that women are prey, subconsciously all this iagery must do something. In that case the effect on women is it reminds them they are supposed to live fearfully, for non predatory men and a lot of women it subconsciously feeds into a victim blaming thing, women are prey they should "protect themselves" and if they dont' they know what will happen so if they don't they have been careless...

i\t's 2 sides of teh same coin

• a lot of overlap sexual violence is often presented in media as sexy and in these ads she is trussed up, the fact that it looks uncomfortable is the whole point, that is sexy, that she will make herself uncomfortable to please the male gaze / it's about submission.

if the posters are in the London branch then it might be worth emailing the Mayor's office? Agree there's a problem with giving Muck Ashley any publicity though.

I actually worry a lot about it affects boys and young men seeing that sort of image. Also young girls and children. What message are they receiving from such images?

A bit like the Shades of Grey book. I have two adult sons and one of them asked me why a woman would want to be treated like the woman in the book? He couldn’t understand it. Genuinely perplexed. On the one hand we have the Me Too. movement, on the other the casual sexualisation and objectification iof women.for all to see. It’s confusing to both sexes.

It is deeply worrying when other women can’t see what is wrong with this sort of advertising too. All women need to wake up and take a stand.

Agreed- misogyny affects everyone.

I'd rather have a Ladbrokes next to a play area than ropy pictures of women in their underwear

If rather a Ladbroke too! By a mile.

Online betting and their aggressive advertising is another matter
And the way so many apps aimed at children promote gambling with in game currency, familiarising them with it.

However they are other issues.

And I can care about both!

I would too.

Just read that parents have complained about this display in Dublin. They said it was pornographic. So he managed to get publicity after all!

God he’s such a dick.

I’m from the north east and though I don’t support Newcastle, I’ll never forgive him for renaming st James park.

Ohh I only just realised that Mike Ashley* owns both: Agent Provocateur AND he owns House of Fraser. Ugh. So we can expect more of the same..
btw nothing wrong with complaining about it.
HoF and AP won’t stop doing it if it’s just ignored will they?
And there are advertising rules against exposing kids to sexualised advertising.

(*Mike Ashley and his ownership of Agent Provocateur is surely a mental image that will kill off the libido of anyone though... so i’m going to predict AP’s days are numbered even if they are on the high street- so the more publicity about this link the better I say )

That explains a lot then. I expect AP’s ‘upmarket’ image is sliding downwards.
They have had their day.

Glad it’s not just me . I got an email from HOF with that black one on it. I was😮. Certainly not what I expected. Can’t believe they’d put it in a high street window.

HoF and AP won’t stop doing it if it’s just ignored will they?

Yes. They will. That’s the only way they’ll stop doing it.

They won’t stop doing it if it’s generating free press for them in ‘middle aged women don’t like sexy window display here’s some pictures of said window display’ articles.

I thought AP were independent and high end ...I had no idea. Mike Ashley and AP...that's an image I can't un-see....😳

Seriously !!??? I am on older mum with two children... they are pics of a beautiful lady in underwear.. what is everyone’s problem? We do not live centuries ago when breast feeding in public was an issue! Why should anyone find these offensive. Wake up ! Anyone who finds women in underwear offensive should have a big look in a mirror and see who has the issue.. maybe it is them and not the pictures

@Nmillard

The first one looks like she's squeezing out a stubborn fart

that was my first thought too
As in what's that first photo all about, looks like she needs to be sat on the bog lol

I agree with everyone's other objections, but what struck me about the first pic is that she is positioning her bottom in such a way that there is an implication that she is inviting anal sex. I may be being ridiculous on this, would be interested to hear what others think,

OMG, thoughts? OK. Just shows how we all intepret things differently, I automatically think she needs just to let out a pump and you straight away think she's positioning for a bit of botty action
That honestly never even crossed my mind, maybe my mind's not in the gutter enough lol

I note that the owner of the lingerie line is the owner of the shop? And a misogynistic bellend?

What he might want to take a gander at is not getting his models to look like an anorexic Doug McLure examining a blackhead and a violent, rape porn addicted man's fantasy of a trussed up woman.

Although given my previous description of him...

they are pics of a beautiful lady in underwear.. what is everyone’s problem?

As photographs they are terrible. They are badly lit and badly staged- particularly the first one. Her body pose is awful. She looks as if she has stomach cramps or as if she peering into the mirror trying to get the best light and angle to squeeze a spot. The other one just looks like a badly tied parcel.

Tbh I'm not that bothered about the sexuality- they are such weird , unflattering, unsexy photos. It takes a perverse talent to take a beautiful women (and for any one who shrieked "she's too thin" - she isn't. Anyone saying that is probably just fat) put her in underwear and come up with photographs that ugly.

I agree they're ugly. But there's more to it than that, for me. They look like they are deliberately posing the women as victims.

Particularly the second one.

The underwear looking a bit grubby and ill fitting has something to do with it too.

not getting his models to look like an anorexic Doug McLure examining a blackhead

Why does anyone who is thin get declared to be anorexic? My weight hovered around 7stone (often dipping below) until I was 30- with no effort required on my part. I was certainly not anorexic. In my underwear I looked like her.

You are right about the blackhead.