China: Gucci joins Mercedez, Three Squirrels as brands under fire for Advertising stereotypes
Gucci, the Italian luxury fashion brand has come under intense fire by the Chinese for depicting Chinese women in western stereotypes. The outcry by the Chinese followed an ad posted y Gucci featuring an Asian-looking model with “scary” makeup, an exaggerated nose ring, and a leather whip in her hand on December 10, 2021, in the fashion house’s official Twitter account. In the advertisement for its new series of bamboo top handle bags posted online on December 10, an Asian-looking female model is seen holding a bag. She’s wearing makeup emphasizing her pink, light eyebrows, small eyes, and high cheekbones that amplify the “Asian face” typically depicted in the Western narrative.
The advertisement subsequently came under the spotlight on China’s social media platform Sina Weibo, and it was discovered that the luxury brand showed different pictures on its Weibo and Twitter posts. The pictures on Weibo did not show the model but only showed photos of the bag, while on Twitter both the model and the bag were visible.
The perceived different treatment of Chinese and Western consumers by Gucci has been slammed by Chinese netizens who saw it as a clear “manifestation of a guilty conscience,” and that the brand knew it had presented a Western-style Asian appearance that would irritate the Chinese audience.
Commenting on the development, Zhu Wei, Vice Director, Communication Law Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law, said, “If we don’t oppose such discriminatory labels, there may be more Western enterprises coming up with these images thinking it’s a ‘key for gaining exposure’. Like the term ‘nigger’ can’t appear in a Hollywood movie the West knows where our taboo is, but it is still willing to touch upon it. “This is extremely disrespectful to our culture. The disgust and revulsion expressed by the whole society toward this kind of insult should be heard.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by a Beijing resident who said, “It’s not about how the model herself looked, nor does it indicate that we refuse bold or innovative fashion styles other than the traditional sense of beauty. It’s about whether a model has been portrayed to specially cater to Western eyes, or has been deliberately created to follow Western stereotypes.”
The controversy surrounding the “Asian face,” which ignited public fury in recent days, started with an advertisement by famous Chinese snack retailer Three Squirrels. It posted a model featuring small, slanted eyes that netizens accused of catering to Western stereotypes and insulting Chinese. Soon afterward, Mercedes-Benz, the German automobile giant, was discovered to have posted models with similar styles of makeup that emphasized slanted eyes in one of its advertisements.
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