Ladies out there, does a full page advertisement of 20 or so young women clad only in a bra really help you decide which bra to buy?
As a man, I see these ads strictly as free soft porn that newspapers and magazines use to keep men looking through their periodical.
Am I over exaggerating here? I’m certainly not complaining!
Can’t speak for anyone else, but if I see a bra that looks sexy on someone else, I tend to think it might look sexy on me and am more inclined to buy it. I think it makes perfect sense that lingerie advertisements feature women in… lingerie.
What would it say if some dude in lingerie were there to try and entice you to buy it?
You might like this ad from Australia. Probably considered NSFW, but there’s no nakedity.
What a great commercial.
Nope. It makes me aware that a specific store is having a sale, but I’d prefer a text ad. I mean, sure the bras look perfect on the perfect little models, but in reality it’s a lot harder than buying other clothes and pictures really don’t help(me) as much. For example, I can look at a pair of pants and think, “nope, no way that’s a look I can pull off, with hips like these.” For me, bra buying is about fit and comfort first, cost second, and if I can find a pretty one in the process, I consider it a bonus. I’m the only one looking at the damn thing, anyway.
I glanced at an article in the paper today about the guys on the men’s underwear boxes, so things are fair these days.
If you thought that was risque, you should see this one.
Yes, this thread has great potential. Most likely NSFW: Stand up!
Unless Oprah or maybe Queen Latifah is doing lingerie ads, it’s not something I even consider marketing to me, darling!
I did try the Le Mystere bra because Oprah recommends it. Not because of her star power, but because of her massive, uh, endowments. Woman like that knows bras for women like me. It’s a good bra.
What really sucks is that they airbrush out the nipples so they don’t get burned at the stake, but sometimes you want to know if they’d show through, which is why you’re looking at the damned picture in the first place!
Oh ye of little faith! 
Or this one…and don’t miss the finish.
If an underwear ad wants to catch my attention, they have to promise something substantial. Like self-cleaning fabric or something, orwith inbuilt slimming wires, or super non-static, or pet-hair repellant. Space-age novelty stuff.
If it’s just a photoshopped model in a bra, I will glance over such ads. I pay more interest if the model is my model, like others said upthread.
My sense is that most women enjoy looking at attractive women in revealing clothing, as long as as it’s tasteful or avant-gard and not raunchy. And sometimes even if it’s a little raunchy.
It’s not sexual, or maybe it is sexual but not sexual in the way men like to look at women. Most of the women I have dated were turned on by looking at women and they were all 100% straight.
This is correct, for me, at least. Sexy pics of women make me think about being the woman.
I look at underwear ads the same way I look at most other ads for women’s clothing…hmmm…that looks cute/might fit my style/it’s on sale?
I’ve bought the same Victoria’s Secret bra for years now, so I don’t even pay attention to bra ads, but I do look at the lingerie on sale. I have an automatic “that ain’t gonna work on me” filter, so I just look at stuff I think I would wear.
The sexiness of the models is, while perhaps titillating to whatever men are looking, not even on my radar. Of course they’re sexy. They get paid to model underwear. I don’t really even notice the models, except for the occasional random observation that the girl in the picture is probably the only one who could successfully wear whatever she’s got on.
But if I were in the market for a new bra, yes, the pictures would help me decide.
They both end the same way. Or did I miss something?
Ditto. Sometimes stuff looks interesting on the rack, but really wouldn’t be my style, and I hate having to wade through all the racks to narrow down my options.
And I think that gets to the differences in psychology between men and women. It’s the same idea that men’s magazines have pictures of attractive women on the cover because editors and publishers know that will increase pick up/sell rate. Women’s magazines, on the other hand, have pictures of attractive women on their cover because it will increase pick up/sell rate.
Men: Pick it up because that would like to acquire that woman.
Women: Pick it up because they want to imagine themselves as that woman.