A Life in 3 Minutes: Swedish Lingerie Brand Debuts an Emotion-Packed Ad

There’s a wide range of messy and emotional territory covered in just shy of three minutes in a new campaign from a legacy Swedish brand called Lindex.

It’s a multigenerational story, centered on a mother-daughter rite of passage, that flows from the combative teen years to the relative contentment of middle age, weaving in the joy of birth and the heartache of illness before coming full circle.

By the way, it’s an ad for skivvies.

The 70-year-old Lindex, known for its female empowerment style of marketing, recently launched its latest effort called “Underwear for Life.” The cinematic spot, from decorated director Fiona Jane Burgess and production company Smuggler, departs from the product-focused ads that are common in the category.

“My ambition with this film was to do something unexpected for a lingerie commercial,” Burgess said in a statement. “I wanted to make a short film that spoke to people in a real and relatable way, with humor and familiarity, but also with sensitivity and meaning.”

The work centers on a shopping trip to buy a first bra, an often awkward moment between moms and daughters that’s at once “very ordinary” yet can “hold a lot of significance and meaning,” said Burgess, a veteran of the Mercedes-Benz 2023 campaign for International Women’s Day and groundbreaking ads for female health company Elvie.

“Underwear for Life,” with its gay starring character, then goes into montage mode that includes everything from short- and long-term love affairs, heartbreaks, health scares and hot flashes. 

The brand—with an emphasis on diverse ages, ethnicities and body types in its imagery—wanted to “reflect real life, with all its ups and downs,” according to Linda Olsson, global marketing director.

Lindex’s campaign fits into a growing trend of marketers giving fuller representation to women’s journeys. It comes shortly after SiriusXM debuted a long-form ad during the Academy Awards telecast in March that traced a woman’s life, from young girl to senior citizen, through a hypnotic mix of audio, music and dance.

The Lindex work, in breaking with category norms, also follows other companies like Kruger Products in Canada in aiming to infuse warmth and intensity into everyday commodity goods, and it drops on the heels of a global Quaker breakfast cereal campaign that went viral on the strength of its tear-jerking father-son story.

“Underwear for Life” joins other Lindex campaigns such as “Reinvent the Model,” which challenges conventional beauty standards, and “Your Invisible Support,” which champions women through their life stages.