Following the recent scandals involving the insults of A-list celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Dolce & Gabbana has been under fire for an advertising campaign that customers, celebrities, and social media users denounced as racist and offensive.
Selena Gomez, singer of Fetish and Naturally, the top-charting fiesta, was featured on a ‘The Catwalk Italia’ Instagram post. Sporting different red dresses, fashion icon and influential magazine company, The Catwalk Italia, asked followers to pick their favourite outfit.
“É proprio Brutta!!!”, Stephano Gabbana, one of the founders of D&G, commented, meaning “She’s so ugly!!!” in Italian. The ever faithful Selenators, Gomez’s fanbase, were quick to respond to the offensive and beautist comment by attacking Gabbana through comments on his own posts such as “Buy Gucci instead”.
The situation proved to be relentlessly degrading to both D&G as a brand and what they stand for. A similar situation happened to Kate Moss, English businesswoman and model.
Furthermore, the series of ads, featuring a Chinese woman attempting to eat pizza and spaghetti with chopsticks, sparked criticism from the public and led to the cancellation of the brand’s Shanghai fashion show.
Amid growing backlash and calls for boycott, Chinese e-commerce sites have removed Dolce & Gabbana products. This is a serious setback for the Italian brand, as Chinese consumers, who spend over $7 billion each year on luxury goods, account for nearly one-third of the global market.
As markets become increasingly diverse, this controversy highlights the need for global brands to be sensitive to local culture and tradition.
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