Why People Are Mad About Dior and Johnny Depp Dior have released a new commercial for one of their fragrances and are slammed for offensive
The actor stars for the company’s Sauvage fragrance in the latest video promo featuring a Native American dancer and other cultural elements. The teaser trailer was released Friday on the Dior s Twitter account. While Sauvage (the French word for savage) has been part of Dior’s collection since 2015, this latest commercial is being condemned as a derogatory term traditionally used by European colonizers to describe indigenous peoples for linking the word savage to indigenous Americans. A leader of the Lower Sioux Indian Community called the ad racist saying It brings it to a whole other level of ignorance and bigotry in a statement to the Associated Press. You should be well aware of what that term means. Much wilder than ever Johnny Depp finds himself at one with nature reconnecting with a land where limits are being pushed. # diorparfums # diorsauvage # johnnydepp A post shared by Dior Parfums (@diorparfums) at 1:02 a.m. PDT On August 19, 2019, the Sauvage campaign’s face and voice narrates the video originally scheduled to be released in full on September 1. Although Dior released photos piece by piece during the week, the video caught everyone’s attention and immediately set off a torrent of backlash on Twitter and Instagram, social media users quickly called out the company. One user wrote what do you do Oh my god Dior? Read the colonial clods room. Have you just seen all the old racist garbage floating around, and thought HEY MAYBE WE CAN LIKE ALL THIS THING AND PARTY LIKE IT S 1899? Yashar Ali (@yashar) 30 August 2019 Others struggle with Dior and those featured in the video, including Lakota dancer Canku Thomas One Star (member of South Dakota’s Rosebud Sioux Tribe) and Tanaya Beatty, an actress in Twilight. Both are regarded as sellouts and Beatty is accused of helping Dior sexualize indigenous women and culture. Someone has also noticed that the fragrance definition says it is using warm oriental tones. Dior has pulled the post and related video from YouTube as a result of the backlash. Dior is defending the product and its marketing Representatives for Dior have confirmed that, while working on the project, they have worked with a Native American advocacy organization Americans for Indian Opportunity. According to The Hollywood Reporter Dior, she wrote about the project in her marketing materials and noted that it was a joint effort: Lauren Harris, Executive Director of Americans for Indian Opportunity, told AP that she believed the trade was successful and that the whole We Are the Land initiative was an opportunity for inclusiveness and a way of acting as an educational platform; She also expressed that no improvements were expected for the ads. Many supporters disagree with her feelings and believe that when it comes to cultural appropriation and benefit, there is a delicate line. Crystal Echohawk, a Pawnee member and IllumiNative’s head, said: it demonstrates that a well-intentioned partnership can be exploitative and discriminatory unintentionally, and I think that’s what happened here. I think this is an important lesson that has been learnt. They need to pull the national campaign completely. Sauvage is currently being marketed on Dior’s website with Depp (who collaborated with them for years) and several videos portraying wolf and eagle mythology and the “Great West.”