Dolce & Gabbana's products have
been pulled from Chinese e-commerce platforms after the Italian
fashion house was hit by a row over an allegedly racist and
sexist ad campaign and incendiary messages purportedly posted by
co-founder Stefano Gabbana on Instagram.
Dolce & Gabbana were boycotted by the three Chinese giants in
the sector, Tmall, JD.com and Suning, cross-border operators
NetEase Kaola and Ymatou, and luxury e-commerce companies such
as Secoo, Vip.com and Yhd.com, media outlets and shopping
platforms said.
Due to the row, Dolce & Gabbana on Wednesday had to call off
a major show in Shanghai, just hours before it was scheduled to
begin, as several celebrities said they would not be attending.
Meanwhile a Beijing government official said Thursday that
the clamor about the advertising campaign that has offended many
people in China must not become a diplomatic case.
"That is not a diplomatic question and I won't let it become
a diplomatic question," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson
Geng Shuang told a press conference when asked about the case.
The controversy arose after videos posted on the Italian
fashion brand's Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts, as
well as its Weibo profile in China.
In the first video published on Sunday, a young model in a
red dress attempts to eat pizza with chopsticks.
She prods the pizza to the sound of stereotypical Chinese
music, before a narrator offers advice such as "just use your
chopsticks like pliers".
In the second and third episodes of the campaign, the same
model tries to eat a cannoli and a bowl of spaghetti and this
time the narrator appears to mispronounce the brand's name, with
some seeing this as a way of poking fun at the Chinese
pronunciation of Dolce & Gabbana.
Also, a voiceover asked "is it too big for you?" while the
model attempted to eat cannoli.
The videos sparked a social media outcry
Weibo users accused the label of trivializing the country's
culture and depicting Chinese women in a racist and sexist way.
The young woman in the video was said to have a stereotypical
'naive' appearance with small eyes, and she was described using
double entendres.
The video for "The Great Show" was taken down within 24 hours
but it had already been shared widely on social media, where the
hashtag #BoycottDolce began to circulate.
In addition, Gabbana was quoted as describing China as a
"foul-smelling, dirty and ignorant mafia" in private Instagram
comments that the recipient made public.
The messages quickly went viral on social media
The fashion house has said its account and that of Gabbana
had been hacked and denied posting the messages.
"We are very sorry for any distress caused by these
unauthorized posts", the company said on its Instagram account.
"We have nothing but respect for China and the people of
China".
On his personal account, Gabbana pasted the words "not me"
over images of the alleged derogatory comments.
Chinese luxury consumers account for an estimated 500 billion
yuan - around 72 billion dollars - in annual spending, making up
nearly a third of the global luxury market, according to a
report released by McKinsey last year.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
