At the same time, Tyrnauer continued, Wexner—who founded The Limited in 1963 with the help of a $5,000 loan from hIs aunt—is a self-made billionaire who enjoyed his time as a media darling in the 1980s, “and I think one of the stories of our time is how corporate leaders have been lionized and celebrated.”
Wexner was behind much of the admittedly “brilliant marketing and branding that made Victoria’s Secret a household name,” he said, comparing the company’s tactics to an “analog version of Instagram”—i.e. it created unrealistic expectations and made the unobtainable desirable.
Tyrnauer stated, “It wasn’t a healthy anesthetizing fantasy. It was intended to convince us that we need things.”
The story of Victoria’s Secret is, in the end, about corporate culture running amok, billionaires enjoying a lot and, sometimes, maybe too much power. It is important to remember that this once-highly successful company crashed almost immediately into the ground.
Victoria’s Secret Angels and DemonsPremieres July 14, 2014 on Hulu