Twitter is up in arms about a plus-size company's shocking marketing tactics — and for good reason. Online retailer Plus Size Baby thought it was a great idea to have a brand that caters to plus-size shoppers in name while using skinny models in reality.
I know, I know. It sounds pretty bonkers that a plus-size brand would ever hire skinny models to sell anything at all, but… well, here we are. A brand has done it. This is not the Twilight Zone. It's real life, and this company has terribly missed the mark.
The Plus Size Baby brand seemingly believes it's OK to sell underwear using skinny models.
"Sexy Lace Panties for Plus Size Women," the brand tweeted along with a photo of a thin model wearing the underwear. Again yes, this is real. These underwear are actually for sale this moment. This is also very insensitive, exclusionary, and blatantly detached from the target customer.
Note: Revelist reached out to Plus Size Baby for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Plus Size Baby didn't just screw up with one modeling photo. There are SEVERAL.
Twitter cannot believe a plus-size brand would ever use straight-size models to sell clothing meant for people with more curves. "I went scrolling through their website. #WhatAJokeMyDarling," one critic wrote. It's a joke indeed. This shouldn't even be happening.
One person has a very straight-up word for this practice.
"Wow…WTF. I'm floored at how stupid and fatphobic this is," the critic wrote. The Twitter user is right. Fatphobia is precisely what's at play. To know that this was executed by a brand called "Plus Size Baby" makes the entire company look exploitative and predatory. Plus Size Baby does not leave any impression that it actually cares about the product and representation needs of plus-size women.
Unfortunately, it gets even worse.
A Twitter user called the brand out for scamming customers with severe markups.
"Checked… These are cheap $3.99 panties from China marked up to $39.96," the person shared on Twitter. "The photos are the same ones on the wholesalers' site with both plus-size [and] regular panties on the same non-plus-size models. Most of the inspo images on their Twitter are lifted from Nike & other brands' ads."
Oh. OK. I get it.
Plus Size Baby excludes plus-size people from ads that sell products designed for them as if they don't get excluded enough already from product offerings and marketing visuals. Then, the brand also wants to charge those same people with high prices for products it doesn't believe they are even good enough to be seen wearing.
What the WHAT?! No, ma'am.
Another person pointed out that using thin models to sell plus-size underwear defeats the purpose of marketing to them at all.
"Wow yeah, cause I can totally tell my body type will fit and look nice in these," one person wrote.
Seriously though, does Plus Size Baby even grasp the concept of marketing or even the various sizing needs? The point of providing photos of models wearing clothing is to offer a preview of how the garments will fit a person of a similar body type. A plus-size person has no way of knowing how the underwear will fit and look on their body if their only visual reference is a skinny model.
A thin person using her hands to stretch a pair of underwear says nothing about how the fabric will stretch and lay on top of a curvier body. It merely says the underwear can be stretched with hands. That's not information ANYONE can use since, you know, NO ONE WEARS UNDERWEAR ON THEIR HANDS.
If that isn't horrible enough, Plus Size Baby didn't even try the foolish hand stretching method on all of its underwear.
WHY? WHY? WHY? This is laughable and only displays how cheap and non-committed this Plus Size Baby brand actually is. Where is the HR department? Is the social media coordinator a bot? Is the photographer a bot as well? When a brand is this lazy, I cannot help but question whether or not it even peddles quality products.
There's also the common sense notion that a plus-size customer would likely be turned off by seeing underwear meant to be sold to them on the body of a skinny person.
Plus-size people already have to deal with being routinely excluded in the media, on runways, and beyond. They also regularly experience discrimination on a social level. Why would they ever be moved to purchase underwear from a brand that perpetuates that same exclusion? And at marked-up prices?
Plus Size Baby really did the most to communicate that it cares the least.
Additionally, Plus Size Baby has a very interesting name for this specific pair of lace underwear.
The product name is Oversized Panties with Lace Decor. OVERSIZED, though? Describing plus-size underwear using that term suggests that people who can fit into them are actually not supposed to be that size. That is flat-out disgusting.
The ridiculousness doesn't just stop with trash underwear pictures.
"Went to the site out of curiosity and found this lovely listing," a user wrote. "It's not just lingerie they do it on. Speaks volumes about what they truly think about their customer base."
You are indeed seeing what you think you're seeing. Plus Size Baby had a skinny model shimmy her entire body inside of ONE leg of plus-size leggings to display their stretch. If that doesn't scream, "I don't care about you or value you or think you deserve to be seen but give me your money," then I'm not sure what else will.
This is peak IDC. And I'm cringing just thinking about what this photo shoot was like.
Other plus-size brands market underwear using women whom the designs were made for, so why should plus-size people ever buy from this company?
There are options, and clearly Plus Size Baby doesn't want to be one of them with its ridiculous marketing photos. The image shown is of lingerie made for plus-size people and WORN by an actual plus-size model. You can see how the panties lay on her hips and how the bra supports the boobs. This is what intimates meant for curvier bodies should look like. Otherwise, why have photos at all?
So here's an exclusive image of the internet being unable to even fathom this.
There are so many ways to get plus-size marketing and product offerings wrong, but this is by far the worst I've ever seen. This is what happens when a brand lacks integrity, doesn't have inclusion anywhere on its radar, and places dollars before people. Shoppers would do better to order up some Savage x Fenty pieces, or head to their local Lane Bryant. Plus Size Baby is certainly not it.
