Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who was the highest-paid model in the world last year, is under fire in her native Brazil after starring in a racy lingerie commercial where she encourages women to use their sexual charm to break bad news to their husbands or boyfriends.
Women Exhorted to Use Sex Appeal to Appease Men
In one of the tongue-in-cheek tv ads, the leggy 5'11" Bündchen strips down to an underwear and bra as she confesses to her onscreen husband that she had crashed his car, maxed out his credit card and invited her mom to stay with them.
To calm a furious husband, a voiceover suggests that female viewers should trot around in Hope lingerie's underwear line, explaining, "You're a Brazilian woman -- use your charm."
In response, government officials from the women's secretariat in Brazil released a statement saying they had received complaints from viewers who were offended that the tv ad perpetuates the stereotype of women as sex objects who must use their bodies to appease men.
The statement added:
"The campaign promotes the misguided stereotype of a woman as a sexual object of her husband and ignores the major advances we have achieved in deconstructing sexist practices and thinking. The model, Gisele Bündchen, encourages Brazilian women to use their 'charm' to lessen possible reactions from their partners."
In response, Hope lingerie company denied that its ad campaign was sexist, insisting:
"Gisele can testify that all of the situations shown in the campaign are jokes about daily life...in no way should they be taken as being depreciative of the feminine figure. It would be absurd for us, who make a living off the preferences of women, to do anything to devalue our main consumer."
The lingerie campaign was created by Giovanni+Draftfcb, an advertising firm with offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Inflammatory Comments On Breastfeeding & Sunscreen
This isn't the first time Bündchen, 31, has come under fire. In February 2011, Gisele was criticized after making comments that implied that sunscreen was poisonous.
Gisele drew criticism again in August 2010 when she declared that mandatory breastfeeding should be a "worldwide law."
She said: "Some people here [in the US] think they don't have to breastfeed, and I think "Are you going to give chemical food to your child when they are so little?
"I think there should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months."
The former Victoria's Secret model later apologized for her remarks, saying, "Becoming a new mom has brought a lot of questions, I feel like I am in a constant search for answers on what might be the best for my child."
In 2009, after losing her pregnancy weight in record time following the birth of son Benjamin, Bündchen explained that getting thin again was easy for her because she didn't overeat like most expectant moms.
"I think a lot of people get pregnant and decide they can turn into garbage disposals," she said. "I was mindful about what I ate and gained only 30 pounds."
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