US environmentalists target Victoria's Secret over catalogue waste

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 18-Apr-05, 07:00

NEW YORK - US mail order and retail lingerie giant Victoria's Secret has been targeted by environmental campaigners, who are accusing it of using paper sourced from endangered forests in the 395m catalogues it sends annually.

Famous for its glamorous model-laden catalogues, the company has a high profile in the US and recently signed up veteran folk rocker Bob Dylan to appear in and contribute to the soundtrack of a TV ad.

According to the pressure group ForestEthics, 25% of the catalogues use paper originating from endangered forests in Canada and the southern US.

The group claims to have organised demonstrations outside 100 Victoria's Secret stores across the US on Thursday. However, a spokesman for Limited Brands, Victoria's Secret's parent company, said he had only heard of the San Francisco store being picketed.

The San Francisco Business Times reported that about a dozen activists, wearing lingerie and wielding fake chainsaws, were outside Victoria's Secret's city centre store on Thursday.

It has also used press and outdoor advertising, and runs a website called Victoria's Dirty Secret.

The website allows supporters to fax a pre-written letter to Leslie H Wexner, the CEO of Limited Brands. It also functions as a message centre for the demonstrations organised by the group.

ForestEthics started a campaign against six catalogue companies in March 2004: Victoria's Secret; Sears/Lands End; JC Penney; LL Bean; J Crew; and William Sonoma.

Last autumn, it began to single out Victoria's Secret and in January 2005 it ran a full-page ad to publicise its opposition to the retailer in the New York Times, featuring a model holding a pencilled-in chainsaw.

The group is demanding that Victoria's Secret ends purchases from any company that is not identifying and halting logging in endangered forests in the Canadian Boreal; maximises post-consumer recycled content in catalogues; ensures that all suppliers are shifting to Forest Stewardship Council certification; ends the use of any forest products sourced from other endangered forests; and reduces paper use.

ForestEthics claims the campaign has had an effect, resulting in Limited Brands promising in January to use recycled paper in 10% of its catalogues.

Anthony Hebron, a Limited Brands spokesman, told the San Francisco Business Times that clearance catalogues are printed on 80% post-recycled content paper and that the company is looking to use the same grade paper in all of its catalogues.

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