Michael Bay tones down explosions in new Victoria's Secret spot

New Yorkers got to play dress-up as Victoria's Secret angels this week, but the marketer's real models didn't make out so well. In the latest ad from the brand's biggest cheerleader, filmmaker Michael Bay, they take to the streets in their lacy underthings to tempt us all to buy push-up bras and satin panties. It's more of what the leering Bay loves to do—slide the camera all over the ladies' gorgeous, scantily clad bodies, lingering on the hair tosses, the lascivious looks and the stilettos. Lots of slow-mo and wind machines—you get the picture. This time, there's architecture and cityscape as backdrops, but none of the explosions that inexplicably dotted last year's Christmas campaign and made it look like a Bay action flick. There's still the surreal touch thrown in for this commercial, though. Look, at the 1:00 mark—she's on a horse! It's been a banner week for Victoria's Secret, with its annual special on CBS drawing 9 million viewers, up 17 percent from the previous year's telecast. Looks like they're on to something.

You, too, can be an angel with Victoria's Secret sidewalk wings

Victoria's Secret has bolted nine sets of its famous wings onto bus-stop kiosks around their SoHo storefront in New York, allowing people to pose in front of them and pretend they are angels. Unlike the models, you don't have to be in your underwear to participate, although that probably won't stop the Naked Cowboy if he finds out about this in time. (The wings are coming down at the end of the day today.) You might even see your picture on the company Facebook page if you're lucky. This is a cool piece of consumer outreach for a company whose chief product doesn't make that very easy. After all, soliciting customers to talk about, much less take pictures of, their underwear is a little sketchy no matter how you dress it up. Picking one of their less obvious trademarks to facilitate the interaction was a smart move. Now, I'm wondering if the models have posed in front of them, too—some of those wings are 35 pounds, and Lily Aldridge can't weigh much more than that.

Victoria's Secret said to be creating line of Halloween costumes

The details are as scant as a thong-and-backless-bra set, but word around the interwebs has it that Victoria's Secret plans to launch a Halloween line this fall. That should come as incredible news to the men of America and folks peddling gym memberships. Nylon magazine drops hints like, "Think corsets, think glitter," but that's fairly vague. Will these branded bits of fabric have wings? Or ears and tails? Pitchforks, maybe? More information has to be forthcoming, but various fashion pubs that tried to root it out got bupkis so far. Since Halloween is the sluttiest holiday—it's OK to dress like a streetwalker!—I'm envisioning all kinds of push-up, bejeweled, sliver-sized outfits. It's the next logical step to what we've all seen for the past several years, but it doesn't make it a good thing. Gentlemen, feel free to disagree.

The Vassarettes don't need encouragement to take off their tops

Back in the punk days, you weren't truly initiated into the sisterhood of rock until some drunken slob shouted "Take your top off!" while not noticing that you totally nailed the bass run to "Hey Joe." Today, this prefab gal band can show their rock chops right away. They already hit the stage in their underwear.
  Meet the Vassarettes, advertising's "first and hottest bra brand band." Vanity Fair Inc. hired this quartet of fair lasses through an American Idol-esque audition to serve as a modern version of the Runaways to rock and also model its Vassarette brand of bras. It's as if they wanted the rock authenticity of the Donnas with the marketing pliancy of the Pussycat Dolls. The Kim Fowley/Svengali figure here was Nicole Dionne of PrimalScream Music, an apt company name for someone charged with creating a female version of the Monkees. A Web site, Vassarettes.com, now serves as an introduction to the band, which features Emily (vocals, bass), Erin (vocals, guitar), Kai Elle (vocals, keytar) and Alexa (drums). "Are you ready for the real thing?" the theme song teases on the intro page, which is an odd start for a group formed in a talent agency's boardroom, but whatever. And actually, it's catchy and jangly and power poppy and hard not to like. The site includes a "Bras" area with all the rocker trappings and bras flung around as if you've stumbled into an all-girl orgy—you click on one to learn about each undergarment's particulars. The "Band" area features video and diaries. Our fave is the "Buzz" part of the site—none of the links seem to work. Hmm, is that because there isn't any? (To be fair, the "Fan Club" link says "Coming soon.")
  The Vassarettes will make their TV debut on Style Network's Running in Heels on April 19.

—Posted by Becky Ebenkamp