In November 18, 2018, Dolce & Gabbana released a series of video campaigns that are accused of being stereotypical for Chinese females and racist and disrespectful towards Chinese culture.
The two-minute long video shows a Chinese woman dressing in D&G products who is trying to eat oversized Italian food with chopsticks. Meanwhile, there is a voice-over trying to push her to eat those food using very specific instructions.
The video sparked a huge wave of anger from Chinese consumers and was deleted from all social media sites less than 24 hours after releasing.
Background Information:
China is one of the biggest market for luxury brands globally, including Dolce & Gabbana. According to the Boston Consulting Group, 32% of the global luxury sales are within Chinese consumers. Offending such big and important market is undoubtedly going to give D&G a difficult time and decrease in multiple features.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time D&G has offended Chinese consumers. In 2017, this brand published the #DGLovesChina campaign featuring models posting with local Chinese people at this country’s iconic landmarks. Although this sounds like a good theme, D&G was criticized for showcasing only the underdeveloped places in China.
Timeline:
Nov. 18- D&G’s video was published.
Nov. 19- Diet Prada shared D&G’s Chinese campaign video
Nov. 20- Stefano Gabbana’s racist comments were leaked to the public.
Models were pulled out from “The Great Show” in China, various celebrities dropped out
Nov. 21- “The Great Show” was officially cancelled
D&G claimed that Stefano’s account was hacked the previous day
Nov. 22- D&G was boycotted from the Chinese Market
Nov. 23- D&G issued an apology
Impact:
Sales: According to CNN: “E-commerce company Yangmatou said in a social media post Wednesday that it had removed 58,000 D&G products.” Yangmatou also declared that "the motherland is more important than anything else.”
Fashion show: According to Vogue: “The show was supposed to an hour long tribute to China featuring over 300 looks, 140 performers, and 1,400 people in the audience.” People’s Daily news outlet reported that: “The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a cancellation notice for the event”, including a warning: “If one is not willing to understand China, eventually it will lose the China market and the benefits arising from China’s growth.” The show had been shut down only hours before it would have started. Which caught the whole fashion world’s attention about the backlash of the ad.
Social Media: CNN reports that: “On social media, people posted videos of themselves burning the brand's clothes or cutting them into pieces and using them to wash their toilets.” Several negative hashtags and trends online appeared to criticize D&G such as the #NotMe or #BoycottDolce. Thus, within a day after the incident, “Boycott Dolce” was discussed 18,000 times online.
My Opinions:
When the video was first proposed, there was no consolidation between internal departments. Some sources stated that the local PR team in China had already warned the Milan-based headquarter about the inappropriate content from a native perspective. However, the opinion was overruled and the campaign was released regardless.
PR specialists not only have to represent their company, but also have the obligation to do research and follow different moral guidelines. Especially for multi-cultural communication, there are certain connotations that are sensitive depends on the culture you are aiming to communicate to. In this case, D&G’s campaign went against all morals of Chinese culture. While Chinese people are known to highly respect and are very conscious about their country, this action is unacceptable.
D&G did not do a great job in response to the crisis and its aftermath for these two reasons:
After the video went viral and sparked the anger throughout the internet, D&G took the video down within less than 24 hours. However, they did not issue any sort of communication or clarification regarding this matter right after that. The video was released on Nov. 18, but took D&G five days after to finally issue an official apology.
When looking at D&G’s responses throughout the timeline, I see an inconsistency, they definitely did not hold their ground well. First, D&G claimed that Stefano’s account was hacked, which can be implied that it was not their fault. On the other hand, D&G then issued an apology claiming that they had made a mistake. These two actions contradict with each other, and lower the trust of users even more than before.
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