In our quest to learn a little more about the world we’ve embarked on the World Bra Tour to examine how different countries approach advertising something as simple as a woman’s bra.  Last time we checked out the latest undergarment fashions in Germany.  This time we go to Asia and see how Korea advertises bra’s and other intimate clothing.  Here we learn not all countries’ bras are advertised and sold in the same way.

How do you say “Bra” in Korean?

I figure it’s a good place to start learning to say how “Bra” in korean.  According to google translate Bra in Korean is “브래지어.”  I can’t read Korean script so this didn’t helped me.  I plugged this into a Korean text-to-speech tool and found that it sounds like this:

To my ears it sounds like “pu-ree-jiao” (my apologies if I’ve butchered the language)

I thought knowing how to say 브래지어 (“bra” in Korean) would help me find some good commercials, but in then end just searching in English seemed to work better.

Vivien

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I first found this commercial, I wasn’t even sure if it was a bra commercial.  At first I thought it might just be a slide show some fan put together featuring pictures of his favorite model or actress, but if you keep watching it changes from a slideshow to a very short “live” video.  I know it’s a bra commercial because at the 27 second mark they flash a quick shot of a bra (evidence below).

Vivien bra's meant to be worn, not seen

It was interesting to see how there was very little focus on the bra and instead more focus on the model making different poses.  Not wanting to assume that all Vivien commercials are like this I looked through some more and found this one.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This one was not a slide show, but of all the bra commercials that I have seen up to now (and I have seen my fair share of them now…all in the name of research) this Vivien commercial has got to be the most scientific I’ve seen.  At the 14 second mark ithey introduce a high tech looking shot of a computer analyzing the flexibility of the bra’s wire.

High tech computers created Vivien bras

What’s interesting to note about both of the above Vivien bra commercials is that neither of the models are actually shown wearing a bra.  In both commercials the bras are just lying about, but never visibly worn by a human.

I was curious to see what the online store looked like and equally as curious to see if their catalogs were as racy as the German bra catalogs we had featured last time.  It took a little digging but I found Vivien’s e-shop for bras.  Immediately you can see there’s a big difference in how they sell bra’s in Korea vs. Germany and even the United States.

That’s right, if you look closely just at the above screen shot from their e-catalog of the 8 models wearing bras only 2 are clearly human, everyone else is a mannequin.

Venus

This Venus bra commercial is different from the Vivien commercials since it actually shows a human wearing a bra.  However, if you watched it you might have noticed that the person wearing the bra might not necessarily be the woman who was featured in the beginning of the commercial.  It could have been a body double.  The other thing to note with this commercial is how much more dramatic it was compared to the other commercials (ie not as scientific).  They have crying, running, and opera music.

Looking a little further back to a 2007 Venus bra commercial we can see that Venus in has decided to show more skin in their recent commercials.

You’ll notice in this commercial they didn’t show the model or any person for that matter wearing a bra.  They have kept the same dramatic almost artsy feel to their commercials.  This one also seems to have more talking than most bra commercials.

The below commercial has got to be my favorite Venus bra commercial.  Again there’s no actual shot of anyone wearing a bra, but the men shooting the silver beams of light is highly amusing.

Venus does set themselves apart from Vivien by featuring real models in their catalog wearing the actual products.

Overall Lessons Learned

Korean bra commercials are definitely more conservative than German bra commercials (and for that matter the United States).  It seems like most of the focus is on the functionality of the bra (ie the comfort) rather than focusing on the sexiness the underwear will make the customer feel.  Even more interesting if you were paying attention to the e-catalogs for the bra’s there are pre-dominantly non-asian women modeling the clothes…or in Vivien’s case non-human’s modeling the underwear.

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In the United States when I think of ladies underwear I think of Victoria’s Secret.  If you were to ask me to name another store I wouldn’t know how to answer.  Victoria’s Secret is a staple in any American mall, men lust over their sexy models, and it seems like every woman loves shopping there.  That’s the situation here in the US, but this got me thinking…where do ladies shop for bras and other intimate clothing in other countries?   What is the equivalent “Victoria’s Secret” in foreign countries and how do they advertise their product?  Armed only with the power of the Internet in this series of posts I set out to find out these answers and embark on the World Bra Tour – an exploration of Bra culture around the world.  Today I start off the tour with Germany.

How Do You Say “Bra” in German?

I was real excited to get started on my Bra quest, however, the first roadblock I came across in my research is that if you search “German Bra Commercials” in Google you don’t get many good results.  The same is true if you search Youtube.  I decided to change my approach and search in German.   But how do you say “bra” in German?

I headed to Google Translate and entered “bra” and was given the German translation “BH.”  Then I learned to say “BH Werbung” (Bra advertisement).  I don’t speak any German, but I was curious to see what “bh” actually sound like and thanks to online text-to-speech I was able to find out.

Here I learned what “BH Werbung” sounded like.

Unfortunately  “BH Werbung” is not very useful in everyday speech, so here’s a phrase that might be more useful “Ich kann Ihre BH!” (I can see your bra!)

Thanks to my new found knowledge I was able to find much more interesting bra commercials.

Bonprix

Click here to view the embedded video.

To be honest this commercial isn’t that exciting. The clip is from their youtube channel, Bonprix FashionTV, where they are advertising and all of their clothing products which also include men, women, and children’s fashion.  Turns out Bonprix is one of the largest e-commerce websites in Germany (top 10 according to their translated wiki page).  They sell their goods through mail order catalogs, online, and a TV shopping show they have.  Their website has this pretty cool feature where you can browse and even download their full catalogs.   For those interested in Bonprix’s  bra and underwear fashions check out their catalog.

The catalog is pretty interesting.  It has page turning animations so as you are browsing you feel like you are viewing a real catalog.   If you happen to find a bra that interests you, you can click on it and you’ll be taken to the product information page.  More impressively, if you click on the magnifying glass on that page you can zoom-in ultra close on the product and model.  I’m assuming the reason you would want to do this is the examine the quality of the material.

Lascana

Click here to view the embedded video.

As Lascana’s slogan “It’s a woman’s world” suggests, Lascana is focused solely on women’s fashion.  They have stores throughout Germany and seem to be similar to Victoria’s Secret, but perhaps more upscale.  In addition to lingerie they also sell swimsuits and “homewear” (which looks like sleepwear to me).  Mahret Kupka, a German fashion blogger, did a great write up (originally in German, but translated courtesy of Google) where she toured a Lascana store and snapped some good photos.  Below is a video tour She did at one of Lascana’s stores.  It seems she was very fascinated by the dressing rooms.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lascana also has an online catalog so if you are curious you can scope out all the latest Lascana fashions.

Just like Bonprix, Lascana also has their own product super zoom-in feature.  It’s a little different, but basically the same idea.  Find a product you like and then zoom up way close to check out the quality of the fabric.

C&A

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of all the German bra commercials I’ve come across so far , C&A’s seems to be the sexiest.  In addition to showcasing not only their bras but also their “strings” (which I assume are panties…) they have some interesting camera angles and shots.  Here’s another example of their more racy commercials.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The prices don’t seem so bad considering it’s only 6 euros ($8) for the string (panties), 15 ($20) for the “corsage,” and 12 ($16) for the “BH” (which we all learned earlier is bra in German).

However, it should be noted that these videos are from 2003 so if you take into account inflation it’s probably like million euros now.  As you might be able to guess with these kind of prices C&A isn’t going after the high end market (Walmart sells a bra for $19).  Similar to Bonprix, C&A sells all kinds of fashion for men, women, and children.  They have stores all over Europe, but in 2001 closed down all the stores in the UK due to poor sales.  Recently they’ve been trying to reinvent their low budget image by improving the quality and increasing the prices.

You can check out C&A’s bra and underwear fashions by checking out their online catalog.

It’s not as fancy as the other two online catalogs, but they lots of photos and they have their own product super zoom-in feature.  I know Walmart for sure doesn’t have this feature.

Overall Lessons Learned

The German online bra and underwear browsing and shopping experience is very different from the United States.  They take tons of high quality photos of the products and models.  They also have very innovative interactive product catalogs.  I’m still amazed at how you can zoom so close up to the models.  You can see the pores in the skin!  Victoria’s Secret seems so boring now.

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