Bob Dylan Hawks Women's Panties for Victoria's Secret

Rocky Mountain News ^ | March 04, 2004

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

FORT COLLINS - Colorado State University students got to hear the serious side of selling frilly things.

Grace Nichols, president and chief executive officer of Victoria's Secret Stores since 1991, detailed the business of the famous lingerie retailer Wednesday as the keynote speaker for the school's Business Day.

"Behind the glamour, the supermodels and the public face, there is a business structure supporting all that," she said.

The brand's story begins 22 years ago, when Les Wexner wandered into a European-style lingerie boutique on a trip to San Francisco. Wexner, chairman and CEO of Limited Brands Inc., saw the potential to develop the concept into a large national chain, Nichols said. Soon after, Limited paid $1 million for the company.

Today, as the largest of Limited's brands, Victoria's Secret operates 920 U.S. stores and generated $3.5 billion in sales in 2002, including about $1 billion from online and catalog sales.

The picture was quite different in 1986, when Nichols joined the company as vice president and general merchandise manager.

"There were 100 stores, $100 million in sales, and the stores didn't make any money," she said.

Heavy discounting was common, she said, with the average bra selling at $12.

That began to change in 1993 with the first national advertising campaign, which included TV commercials and print ads. Since then, the company has grown to command a much bigger chunk of the $12 billion U.S. lingerie market.

Nichols showed the audience a clip of commercials, as well as a reel from all the free news and talk-show coverage of the company's world-famous fashion show.

The combination of advertising and public relations campaigns around the fashion shows spurred rapid growth in the 1990s, she said, and also allowed the company to stop heavy discounting.

Today, the average bra in Victoria's Secret sells for between $35 and $50, she said, and sales happen only twice a year, in January and June, to clear out seasonal items.

According to the company's annual report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Victoria's Secret saw sales at stores open more than a year climb by 6 percent in 2002.

The company expects to see bigger jumps in the coming years, as it works on increasing the size of its stores in existing markets, Nichols said. More stores, which now average about 5,000 square feet or so, will take on the look of the 21,000-square- foot flagship Manhattan store.

In markets where the renovation and expansion have been done and customers have more to choose from, she said, sales have jumped by almost 50 percent.

Victoria's Secret expects future growth to come from its continued focus on core items - bras and panties - as well as its sub-brands, including its best- selling "Body by Victoria" line, which brings in $500 million in annual sales.

This year, the company launched a new sub-brand, called Pink! and aimed at 18- to 24-year-old women, slightly younger than the company's typical customers.

And Victoria's Secret plans another ad blitz beginning this month. The latest commercials will feature not only a song but a guest appearance by music legend Bob Dylan.

"We asked him to be in the commercials and he said yes, he would gladly go off to Venice with the supermodels," she said.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

I know this story is nearly a month old, but my wife and I saw the idiot Dylan peddling women's undies on an advert tonight. What an old fool he is. Some things never change.

[BigWaveBetty]

Bob Dylan makes me want to don a burqa.

[freebilly]

The undies are blowin'in the wind....

[billorites]

The drawers they are a changin...

[freebilly]

Oh the thongs they are a changin'!

[freebilly]

Beat me to it!

[Leroy S. Mort]

Surprised they didn't pick Sir Mix-A-Lot.

[billorites]

All along the crotchtower...

[AmishDude]

Don't tell me this is a Joe Namath-type deal.

*shudder*

[freebilly]

Lay lady lay

Lounge around in big bras red....

[Revolting cat!]

Everybody should get thonged!

[billorites]

Halter from the storm...

[since1868]

Bash-ville nylon

[djf]

Knock, Knock, Knockin at Heavens door...

[gogipper]

The Panties are blowin in the wind.....

[Senator Pardek]

We'll see if "Blonde on Blonde" is real or peroxide!

Footnote: this is the first time a poster has used the word "blonde" in successive posts to different threads.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Early one morning,
The sun was shining,
I was laying in bed,
Wondering if she'd changed at all,
If her teddy was still red,

Her folks said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like mama's homemade dress,
Papa's bustier wasn't big enough...

[freebilly]

Buckets of rain
Buckets of tears
Look at the buckets
on Britney Spears....

[billorites]

If you pee here, say hello...

[wattsmag2]

Yeah, but wouldn't you like a job hawking womens undies if you get to work with the Victoria's Secret models?

[Revolting cat!]

It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

(title unchanged.)

[Ax]

"Women's Panties?" Like there are MEN'S Panties? Maybe on sale at DU.

[billorites]

You gotta perv somebody

[Revolting cat!]

THIS JUST IN:

In the commercial Zimmy's going to perform a song off Down in the Groove album (1988) Ugliest Girl In The World!

[Reo]

"Bob Dylan makes me want to don a burqa."

Don't worry, Betty, .....his clothes are dirty, but his hands are clean..........

[freekitty]

Oh Geez.

[Common Tator]

Victoria's Secret is she likes to dress like a slut.

[Common Tator]

Like there are MEN'S Panties?

Sure there are... Ask George Sepinalotofit... not to mention Barney Franks.

[SamAdams76]

I always wondered if the refrigerator light in my refrigerator really went off when I shut the door. After all, unless I was to empty out my refigerator, step inside, and close the door with me in it, then how would I really know?

It was really bugging me, especially at night as I tossed and turned in my bed, wondering whether or not the darn light in the refrigerator was really off or not with the door shut.

But I outsmarted the refrigerator. I took my digital camera, set the time-delay feature, put it inside the refrigator and closed the door. And this is what I got...

So I am relieved to know that the light goes off in the refrigerator after all.

For those wondering about the border, that is one of the money-saving features of my digital camera. That border is around every picture I take. Therefore, every picture I take is automatically framed and ready to hang on a wall.

[ErnBatavia]

Next stop for Zimmermann/Dylan: the Indian Casino circuit, right along with the likes of Englebert Humperdink, Herman's Hermits, etc.

[Revolting cat!]

I got it! Zimmy will sing a new version of the song Went to See the Gypsy (New Morning, 1970), which was about Bobby's experience of visiting Elvis Presley at a Las Vegas hotel, and, in the new altered version, the two of them team up to pursue the latter's twin obsessions with voyeurism and white panty fetish.

[Tweeker]

Gee, hate to tell you this but Dylan's touring is still going strong. Dylan is still one of the best live performers after 40 years of performances. He has never become a nostalgia act. He and his band can perform over 80 different songs in any month...unlike today's performers, Dylan's shows are fresh and exciting.
Can't wait to see him next week in Georgia.

[Tweeker]

He looks pretty good to me! Great goatee!

[Ganymede]

Can't wait to see him next week in Georgia.

I'll be seeing him here in DC this weekend! Sunday night. The Saturday night performance was sold out, so they added the Sunday performance. He's still going strong . . .

[ErnBatavia]

Dylan's touring is still going strong.

His tour may be, but he ain't (and by extension, his tour won't be for much longer)....the office down the hall is his "celebrity dentist", who used to be Dylan's roadie years ago. I've seen both Dylan and George Harrison shuffling their way in, and both looked equally as decrepit. IMO, Bob Dylan is among the walking dead, having seen him up-close-and-personal.

Moving on to other patients of this 'celeb dentist', I can attest that Tracy Chapman and Nicole Kidman look a WHOLE lot better up-close-and-personal than one might guess...(Kidman is as tall as I am - and I'm just a tad under 6 feet)

[lewislynn]

I saw the idiot Dylan peddling women's undies---What an old fool he is.

If only I were such a fool.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

You two need to get together and join Dylan's fan club. I'm sure you know that Dylan's favorite poet is Allen Ginsberg. Check him out, he's probably right up your street.

[lewislynn]

I like both Dylan and women in panties.

I'm sure you know that Dylan's favorite poet is Allen Ginsberg.

That means as much as Bush having Ted Kennedy over to watch movies...So what?

[Yaelle]

"How does it FEEEEEL??
Pima cotton so REEEEAL!"

"Sara, oh Sara, whatever made you want to change your cup?"

"Put in a push-up bra but one time, she coulda' been the champion of the world..."

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

I like both Dylan and women in panties.

I'm sure Dylan and all women everywhere are pleased to hear that. LOL! You're a laugh a minute.

That means as much as Bush having Ted Kennedy over to watch movies...So what?

Your Kennedy/Ginsberg comparison misses the point entirely. Now, what you could have said was, That means as much as Bush having Barney Frank over to watch movies...So what?

But then, Dubya wouldn't do that now, would he? LOL! Try again, wee one! Ha! What a putz!

[lewislynn]

"When the cracker gets old you end up with Old Cracker"

Simpleton.

[headsonpikes]

Man! Somebody needs a coffee this morning!

That would be you, sir.

[Moby Grape]

Dylan's favorite poem was NOT Gingberg...it was Dyaln Thomas, from whom he took his name.

[wordsofearnest]

tangled up in red

[Landru]

Great work if ya can get it.

For Bob that part's easy though whatwith the outrageous sex appeal of his droning?
Obviously Dylan's an animal.

Just keep track of his tour dates so when he's in town.

...you use the dryer for your undies. :^)

[bondjamesbond]

Wonder if the girls will be wearing Boots of Spanish Leather...

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

LOL! Woohoo!

[lewislynn]

LOL! Woohoo!

Ok, not simpleton.... Nitwit.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Dylan's favorite poem was NOT Gingberg...it was Dyaln Thomas, from whom he took his name.

Allen Ginsberg (not Gingberg) is not the name of a poem. And Dylan (not Dyaln)Thomas was a lumberjack who Bob Dylan met during his own little Kerouac journey. Thomas and Gingburger wrote verse for the fairies living on Haight St.

All three mentioned were/are more than a few flapjacks short of a stack.

[headsonpikes]

And Dylan...Thomas was a lumberjack...

So he's okay?

He sleeps all night, and works all day?

I never would have figured Dylan Thomas for a snoose-user.