We decided to do something that had never been shown before in lingerie advertising: we let a man wear the push-up bra. We asked male model Andrej Pejic - known internationally for his androgynous looks - to model the bra. Thanks to the 'two cups extra' his flat chest looked feminine and curvy; the ultimate proof that HEMA's new bra did what it promised to do. This we demonstrated in three different photos featured in a nationwide outdoor campaign. With a press release we wanted to make sure that all Dutch media (including social media) were informed of the fact that the model showing the HEMA bra was a man. With such a bold campaign for department store HEMA we expected that a single press release would do the job.

All major Dutch newspapers, radio stations, TV stations and websites covered the campaign. It was only a matter of hours before the news went global. From Europe to America to Asia... HEMA's promise was perfectly rendered in all languages: ‘If a man can look like that, imagine what it can do for a woman!’ While the campaign successfully reached all corners of the world, sales figures in the Netherlands surpassed all expectations. Within 1 day the 2 most popular bra sizes were sold out at HEMA's online store. 3 days later, all sizes were sold out.