Dior Faces Backlash for Native American-Inspired Perfume Campaign

[ladylinners 485]

Storied French fashion brand Dior is facing criticism after it debuted a sneak peek of its new fragrance campaign featuring Native Americans and Johnny Depp.

The brand posted two clips of Canku Thomas One Star, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, performing the Fancy War Dance wearing a colorful traditional ensemble as part of the new Dior Sauvage advertising initiative.

[...]

The brand wrote that the film was “developed as a close collaboration between the House of Dior and Native American consultants from the 50-year old Indigenous advocacy organization, Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), in order to respect Indigenous cultures, values and heritage.”

It continued: “As soon as we began to evoke Native American imagery and symbols in this new film, the House of Dior, Jean-Baptiste Mondino and Johnny Depp immediately decided to contact Native American consultants who are enrolled citizens of the Comanche, Isleta and Taos Pueblos and the Pawnee Nation, with years of experience fighting cultural appropriation and promoting authentic inclusion. This collaboration, which started at the very beginning of the project, led to a work process that was extremely demanding and specific. On-going communication about the project, and then on the film set, had a shared aim: moving away from clichés in order to avoid the cultural appropriation and subversion that so often taints images representing Native peoples.”

Each detail of the film was discussed with academic and activist Ron Martinez “Looking Elk” who worked as a consultant to ensure the culture was portrayed with respect, and the AIO validated every detail from the script, to location to costumes used, the release explained. Dior also announced it is making a donation to AIO.

[...]

Some social media users are calling out those bashing the brand. “lol at people commenting negative stuff about the natives clearly didn’t even bother to watch the video,” one Twitter user wrote.

Another commented: “I’m native american and dont parallel the idea this is racist or cultural appropriation. I think its beautiful.”

https://people.com/style/dior-cultural-appropriation-backlash-sauvage-fragrance-campaign/

[whocares 2,122]

So basically there’s nothing to bash them for?

[FentyGa 14,340]

they did their research. beyond that, they looked at all the details with a native american consultant. there's no reason to bash them. i'm willing to bet that everyone bashing them is white lol

[weed 78,964]

Perfume name: Savage in French 

[Aleks 3,946]

2 minutes ago, neptugne said:

Perfume name: Savage in French 

More like “wild” in this case

[River 127,556]

can you post the the campaign so we can judge it?

[ladylinners 485]

9 minutes ago, neptugne said:

Perfume name: Savage in French 

The perfume name already existed. What I got from it is that it is an ongoing campaign with Johnny Depp, and that this new fragrance is continuing where the other left off. 

[ladylinners 485]

1 minute ago, River said:

can you post the the campaign so we can judge it?

Apparently it's not even out yet. According to their social media pages the video is being released on the 1st of September. 

Promos

https://www.dior.com/en_int/products/beauty-Y0998004-sauvage-parfum?utm_source=twitter&utm_content=visual_packshot_sauvage_leparfum_socialcrossdevices&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sauvage_int_aug19

 

[River 127,556]

2 minutes ago, ladylinners said:

Apparently it's not even out yet. According to their social media pages the video is being released on the 1st of September. 

Promos

https://www.dior.com/en_int/products/beauty-Y0998004-sauvage-parfum?utm_source=twitter&utm_content=visual_packshot_sauvage_leparfum_socialcrossdevices&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sauvage_int_aug19

 

I'm gonna wait until it'll be published, too early to have an opinion.

And isn't Depp comes from a native family? or at least have native ancestors? I think I read it once, can't find anything on his wiki page about it though.

[ChromeAngel 3,230]

20 minutes ago, ladylinners said:

Apparently it's not even out yet. According to their social media pages the video is being released on the 1st of September. 

Promos

https://www.dior.com/en_int/products/beauty-Y0998004-sauvage-parfum?utm_source=twitter&utm_content=visual_packshot_sauvage_leparfum_socialcrossdevices&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sauvage_int_aug19

 

I’m sure there’s something I’m missing but he’s literally sitting by a campfire. Is being outside a Native American thing?

[ladylinners 485]

26 minutes ago, River said:

I'm gonna wait until it'll be published, too early to have an opinion.

And isn't Depp comes from a native family? or at least have native ancestors? I think I read it once, can't find anything on his wiki page about it though.

A statement from the AIO provided to Insider said that the collaboration came about after Depp – who is featured in the film, and who was adopted by the Comanche Nation in 2012 after claiming Cherokee heritage – “reached out to his Comanche family to ask for their help to ensure Native cultures were portrayed appropriately.”

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/dior-sauvage-faces-backlash-native-american-culture-2019-8

9 minutes ago, ChromeAngel said:

I’m sure there’s something I’m missing but he’s literally sitting by a campfire. Is being outside a Native American thing?

I found the teaser video Dior posted (the original tweet has been deleted)

 

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

People on Twitter were saying the anger is mostly cause of the name and how “Savage” has been used as a slur for Natives in many parts of the world. 

So honestly kind of stupid to even have this imagery for a fragrance with that name. 

I’m betting they’re loving the outrage, now everyone knows the fragrance and sales will probably rise.