Dutchliving: Of Push-up Bras and Male models

Dutch department store Hema has a rather interesting new push-up bra advertising campaign that has not only stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy but is likely to generate interest in a brassiere that may have actually passed unnoticed. The lastest Hema adverts use an androgynous Bosnian-born Australian male model Andrej Pejic to advertise the push-up bra. Aside from the somewhat disturbing fact that the male model looks alot better than many females in female clothing, Hema has opted for this route possibly to get everyone talking. Indeed it appears that Hema has succeded. The launch of the campaign a few weeks ago had Hema trending on Twitter worldwide and it was not long before the story was picked up by international media outlets.



An advert I ran into showing Hema's new push-bra modelled by Andrej Pejic

After hearing about the push-bra controversy via Twitter, I was excited to see a Hema billboard advertising the bra outside my local supermarket.

I love the way the Hema ads have “Andrej Pejic voor Hema (Andrej Pejic  for Hema)” at the bottom right-hand corner just in case one was blissfully unawares that the model was a male. Whether Hema is aiming to challenge social norms and sell bras or just primarily to sell bras still remains to be seen. However, it does appear they are succeeding on both fronts.