Gisele’s Hope Lingerie Ads Blasted for Being ‘Sexist’

By Erin Donnelly 09/30/11 at 10:20 AM

Just when we thought Gisele Bündchen could do no wrong ...

A new Hope lingerie campaign starring the supermodel (who also designs for the brand) has been deemed "sexist" in her native Brazil, the Guardian reports.

So, what's their beef? Officials are upset because the ads—a series of short TV spots that see Bündchen stripping down to her skivvies in order to gently break some bad news to her husband—contains "discriminatory content against women."

Not helping matters is the ad's tagline: "You're a Brazilian woman—use your charm."

"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," Brazil's women's secretariat, which is demanding that the ads be pulled, says in a statement.

"The model, Gisele Bündchen, encourages Brazilian women to use their 'charm' … to lessen possible reactions from their partners."

Officials also claim that they have received six viewer complaints since the ads began airing on September 20. Hope lingerie, however, insists that it "never intended to come across as sexist."

"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," company director Sandra Chayo says. "It would be absurd for us, who make a living off the preferences of women, to do anything to devalue our main consumer."

In related news, see the ad that offended this supermodel.