madcomments

Will Mel B spice up Ultimo?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Latest reporters' blogs, Lucy Tesseras April 22nd, 2008 by Lucy Tesseras

Ultimo yesterday announced that Mel B will be taking over from Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding as the new face and body of the lingerie brand. She may be a major international star and probably the biggest name the label has ever signed, but is she really that appealing to women?

Ultimo is a young and flirty lingerie label and despite Mel B claiming she has never been in better shape following a stint on hit US TV show Dancing with the Stars and the Spice Girls reunion tour, she just doesn’t seem like the most obvious choice.

She’s not a bad looking woman and has a pretty good bod for a mum of two, but something just doesn’t work. She doesn’t have the same sex appeal as some of her fellow Spice Girls and the Chinese symbol tattoos running across her stomach just look dated and tacky.

Before her recent comeback I doubt Mel B was that high on advertisers’ wish lists, doing nothing much since the Spice Girls spilt than moving to LA, getting knocked up by Eddie Murphy and enjoying several quite well publicised lesbian encounters.

She’s not exactly known for her fashion sense or subtly either, often dressing to excess in head-to-toe leopard print, but she must have done something to catch Ultimo creator Michelle Mone’s eye.

The entrepreneur said she thinks the Leeds-born singer is “confident, sexy and outgoing” which may be true, but she can also be crass, blunt and totally inappropriate following reports she made lewd comments in front of an audience of kids at a recent event.

Harding is no angel by any means, but she does seem to fit the brand profile more closely, and alongside former Hollyoaks starlet Gemma Atkinson, who models the DD-G range for the brand, they make a much more coherent team.

It could be that the move comes ahead of plans to expand the brand outside of the UK, or maybe they are keen to appeal to a broader audience and entice a slightly older customer, in which case Mel B could be seen as a logical choice; globally she is much more well know than Harding, plus she is older so could appeal to a more mature consumer, but does she really have what it takes to be a lingerie model?

Maybe it’s just a case of taking what she can get. With the Spice Girls taking a break for the second time maybe Mel B is just hedging her bets. Not wanting to end up a washed up Spice Girl for the second time in 10 years, she’s taken a leaf out of Victoria Beckham’s book and launched her own fashion line. Catty Couture, which she unveiled where else but LA, is a gaudy collection of leopard print delights, which would look more at home on a stall on Albert Square than on the catwalk.

But what is most interesting is that just before the launch, in an article in the Sunday Mirror, a spokesman for the mother of two said designing her own collection is “better than fronting something for another label”. My how the tables have turned.

To read the related news story click here!