The swimwear company Moana is facing immense backlash after they featured an ad for their women’s bikini line but used a man in the advertisement.
Many were upset that the Australian company hired male model Jake Young to showcase the bathing suit that retails for around $100.
“OBSESSED WITH THIS LOOK,” Moana wrote on its Instagram page, adding that “Jake wears a size S.”
“Sorry but Moana, this is not how you empower women,” one woman commented. “This is once again giving men the power over us and saying they do it better.”
“Why can’t men be men? I’m over this narrative,” another wrote.
One woman blasted the actual marketing sense of the ad, writing, “This is bad advertising if the target audience is women. A man wearing a piece designed for women….not going to make most women want to buy it.”
A commenter said Moana lost her as a customer. “Will never ever buy here again! This is a disgrace to women!” she wrote.
Another joked that Moana was the next Bud Light.
“Lol apparently your marketing team learned nothing from Budweiser or targets major loss. Hopefully it was worth the loss in revenue,” the comment read.
the company has been defiant blasting critics and said, “If Jake in our bikini upsets you that much we feel as though this may be a ‘you’ problem.”
“We find it quite absurd that people would cherry-pick this one individual post from our 13 years of business to make a wild statement about us not being empowering to women,” the company said in a statement.
“Moana Bikini are — and have always been — one of the most inclusive and empowering brands in existence. This is not only in terms of our size and style range for women, but — most importantly — in our love and acceptance of all races, ethnicities, body shapes and sizes, genders and sexual orientations,” the spokesman said, adding, “This hasn’t changed and never will change.”
“Many commenters are using the excuse that they believe it is ‘insulting to women’ when, in reality, it’s quite clear they are homophobic and have an issue with someone expressing their sexuality proudly and confidently,” the company continued.
Get this next part…
“We’re happy to receive and hear people’s feedback — both negative and positive. But we’re not here to please everyone,” the company added. “That’s an impossible task. If people aren’t happy with this individual post of a proud gay man wearing a piece of clothing he feels confident in, they can just keep scrolling or unfollow, can’t they?”
No you aren’t happy to hear peoples feedback, you are actually angry about it.
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