Eva Herzigová

Eva Herzigová (born 10 March 1973) is a Czech model and actress.

Early life and career

Herzigová was born in Litvínov, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). She began her modeling career after winning a modeling beauty contest in Prague in 1989, at the age of sixteen. After arriving in Paris, her popularity increased. Her first important appearance was as the model for the first Wonderbra campaign in 1994. She was also featured in Guess? jeans advertisements. She has also appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalog and Sports Illustrated. She was a member of Thomas Zeumer's Metropolitan Models. Herzigová has also appeared in several movies. In 2006, she was Venus at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Amongst her most recent projects, Herzigová also starred in a fashion art film by Imagine Fashion, called Decadent Control with Roberto Cavalli. It featured fashions by Agent Provocateur and H&M.

In 1994, advertising executive Trevor Beattie, working for TBWA/London, developed an ad for Sara Lee's "Hello Boys" Wonderbra campaign. It featured a close-up image of Herzigová wearing a black Wonderbra. The ad used only two words: "Hello boys." The ground-breaking, racy ad campaign resulted in many imitations along with a few complaints that the photograph demeaned women. The influential poster was featured in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and it was voted in at number 10 in a "Poster of the Century" contest. The Canada-based lingerie fashion label wanted the ad campaign to motivate women to see the Wonderbra "as a cosmetic and as a beauty enhancer rather than a functional garment". The billboard was voted in 2011 as the most iconic outdoor ad during the past five decades by the Outdoor Media Centre.