Lingerie brand Harper Wilde issued an apology Monday for issuing an ad campaign that compared their bras to Ryan Reynolds holding the user’s breasts and talking to them.
The ad, which appeared in a now-deleted Instagram post on Friday, shows a pink background and white squiggly font that reads, “This bra is like if Ryan Reynolds was gently holding up your breasts and whispering in your ear that you are doing a good job … honestly,” according to The Independent.
A screenshot of the ad made its way around social media, causing numerous raised eyebrows.
“This is the worst kind of marketing,” tweeted one person.
“Yeah I’d absolutely hate that,” added another.
“Only straight men think Ryan Reynolds is hot like we’ve been thru this. We want Pedro pascal and Oscar Isaac,” a third person chimed in.
One user cheekily tweeted at the “Deadpool” actor to try to confirm the validity of the statement.
“@VancityReynolds can you confirm that a bra company took the necessary measures to ensure we receive the Blake experience,” they said.
The lingerie brand issued a statement Monday via a Reddit thread, in which the company clarified that the comment was actually a user’s review.
“For context, this is actually a review by a real customer originally meant to run with a series of other reviews – we thought it was cheeky enough to run as an ad, but the attribution was cut off at the bottom by the ad interface (original ad series attached!),” they responded.
“The core of our brand is ultimately about designing bras by boob-havers for boob-havers while divesting from the male gaze. While we clearly have customers who are straight women, this single review doesn’t represent our entire brand,” the company continued.
“Our small team is 99% women and we absolutely do not condone creepy non-consensual boob-grabbing of any kind, even in a figurative hypothetical bra-review. We’re so sorry this creeped anyone out! Absolutely not our intention and we’ve pulled the ad from running.”
The Post has reached out to representatives for Reynolds for comment.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
