These photos reveal why women are abandoning Victoria's Secret for American Eagle's Aerie underwear brand

Jessie Shealy

"It's basically pornography," shopper Jessie Shealy wrote on Victoria's Secret's Facebook page, referring to the ads on display in her local store in South Carolina.

• Victoria's Secret customers are complaining on Facebook that its ads, which feature scantily dressed models, are targeted more towards men than women.
• Meanwhile, rival brand Aerie has doubled down on its efforts to promote female empowerment.
• We visited the two stores to see how their ad campaigns differ.

Victoria's Secret has an advertising problem, and it's putting off customers.

In January, Business Insider reported that mothers of teenage children who shopped at its teen-centric brand, PINK, were revolting online because of the oversexualized ads in Victoria's Secret's stores.

"It is basically pornography that everyone (children and teens) are subjected to viewing because there is only one area to check out between PINK and Victoria's Secret, which happens to have the most obscene photos behind the registers," shopper Jessie Shealy wrote on Victoria's Secret's Facebook page.

PINK has become one of the most successful parts of Victoria's Secret, reporting stronger sales than other parts of the store in recent years.

But it's not only PINK customers who are being put off by these racy photos. Some Victoria's Secret customers are also complaining that its ads are targeted more at men than women.

Meanwhile, rivals such as American Eagle's underwear brand, Aerie, are doubling down on their efforts to appeal to their female shoppers, ditching photoshopped images and partnering with women activists to promote female empowerment.

We visited Aerie and Victoria's Secret to see just how extreme the differences are:

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