Pop-music icon and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bob Dylan recently ended his longstanding aversion to corporate sponsorship to endorse an unusual product--women's lingerie from Victoria's Secret. Recent television ads for Victoria's Secret feature an intriguing interplay between the grizzled Dylan and the almost nude, premier supermodel Adriana Lima. Dylan's song "Love Sick," from his Grammy-winning 1997 album "Time Out of Mind," provides the backdrop for the spot featuring a new line of lingerie, the "Angels" collection--which explains the wings on Lima's back as she prances across a palazzo near a Venetian canal.

Dylan's appearance is the latest in a string of recent rock-and-roll endorsements that range from Led Zeppelin's Cadillac commercials, to Devo's Swiffer ads and the Turtles' Applebees combos. The stark music and imagery in the Victoria's Secret piece communicate an unspoken romantic angst and mystery between Dylan and Lima--a tension fitting for the lingerie mystique.

Public reaction has been nearly as unpredictable as the ad itself, with most responses being generally favorable, even if bewildered. It is clear that the company hopes the campaign will appeal to a wide range of audiences, from '60s-generation Boomers to the younger Generation Y. Romance is timeless, after all.

(May, 2004)