American Eagle's Aerie brand continues to resonate deeply with women, while the world's biggest lingerie brand Victoria's Secret struggles. Aerie maintains its no Photoshop, real women with great personalities positioning in their Spring/Summer 2018 campaign, shot in Panama by Ali Mitton.

Aerie launched its #AerieREALgirls LOVE THE SWIM YOU'RE IN campaign, again donating $1 for each Instagram real woman lovin' her body post up to $25,000 to the National Eating Disorders Association as a followup to last year's $15K donation. VS won't touch these topics with a 10 ft pole, as I reminded us in the launch of Rihanna's new lingerie collection.

CNN reported on May 10:

Hey Victoria. This isn't exactly a secret. But nobody seems to be buying your lingerie. And that's a huge problem.

Far away from the glory days of being a young company on the move, L Brands -- the parent company of Victoria's Secret -- has the unwelcome honor of being the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500, down almost 50% in 2018, reported CNN.

VS is not the first brand to struggle with maturity and new competition. Consider what The Gap has endured. But there's a grave danger in thinking that you can create the most expensive bras in a mass market world, when income stagnation is as real as the #metoo movement. VS is off kilter from its brand positioning to its price points, and that's before many women call VS PINK's design too juvenile. PINK has been the growth engine for the lingerie revenue stream at L Brands. Now sales are down for the first time two months in a row for March and April 2018.

In early March, Target released its new swimwear line featuring a staggering 1,700 styles. For the second hyear in a row, Target's campaign also features women with more realistic body types and is 100% Photoshop free. The retail giant began its commitment to body-positive swimwear ads back in 2016 with its #NoFOMO campaign that encouraged its customers to “embrace their confident and fearless selves.”

The biggest headache of all may be on the horizon, with Amazon moving deeply into lingerie under the Arabella brand. Aerie, Target and The Gap's LOVE lingerie brand are hardly protected from Amazon's withering presence, but they are much better positioned than Victoria's Secret.

The incredible 50% stock price drop at VS parent L Brands isn't warranted by the missed revenue goals as much as the sinking feeling that the brand may not understand how fully 'wrong' it is on multiple fronts, if these trends continue. Especially with the rise of #MeToo and women's empowerment, the VS strategy could be more off the mark than ever. No Photoshop and real women campaigns resonate much better in today's female mindset than a flawless supermodel girl gaggle wearing high-end bras in these Trumplandia times.

Note also that Victoria's Secret is opening stores in China. There may come a time when like the Ivanka Trmp brand, a brand out of sync with the American market is generating huge profits in China.

All images featured here are from Aerie's Spring 2018 campaign.

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