An Analysis Of The Role Of Visual Images In The Visual Consumption Of “Victoria’s Secret”

Victoria’s Secret(VS for short in the rest of the thesis), is a retailer of intimate apparel and beauty products, enjoying nearly a monopoly position in the lucrative lingerie market of the USA. Dismissing the traditional white cotton stuffs which department stores offer, VS is popular for colors and patterns that give its products more allure and sexiness. In the modern world, visual images are of particular significance for commercial and social issues. Today, owing to its successfully constructed visual images in advertising, Victoria’s Secret has conveyed its brand image and the labeled lifestyle to the consumer. Based on theories of visual culture and visual consumption, this thesis will make an analysis of VS’s visual images, by discussing the techniques employed in its advertising as a visual representational system, so as to unveil the role of the visual images in the consumption of VS’s products.The thesis is mainly divided into three chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion. Latching on the gradually determined priority of VS’s visual images in advertising from the visual transition of the brand, the first part endeavors to unveil consumers’ deprivation of interface with reality owing to the application of visualization techniques to the extreme. From the perspective of photography, the second part illustrates the construction of VS’s visual images in advertising as a representational system, in order to elaborate how the brand convinces the consumers that consumption helps them achieve the desired visual effect and the coveted identity. The third part, by comparing VS’s female images in the visual advertisements with the stereotypical female images of the mass media, attempts to disclose the idea of empowerment on the basis of visual consumption and body as a visual medium, the purpose of which is to persuade the consumers to consume VS’s products.