SMH: Dior Faces Backlash After Releasing Racist Ad With Johnny Depp

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Dior Releases An Ad Johnny Depp That A Lot Are Deeming Racist

It seems like the fashion world is still heavily struggling with what cultural appropriation and racism is and how to avoid releasing content that checks both of those boxes. At this point, it really seems like these mishaps are more on brand PR than they are an accident.

The latest brand to get caught in the cycle of tone-deaf marketing is Dior. Early Friday morning, the luxury brand released a new advertisement starring Johnny Depp for their cologne, Sauvage.

The ad features Native Americans in its imagery, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The entire Dior corporation must have been asleep during history class and missed the fact that ‘Sauvage’ was the word racist mobs were screaming when they stoned Mohawk civilians during the Oka crisis.

According to reports from Time, Dior responded to their request for comment with a little insight into their thought process:

“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,” they note, with the “shared aim” of “moving away from clichés in order to avoid the cultural appropriation and subversion that so often taints images representing Native peoples.” They continued: “And so, from the script to the choice of locations via costume making and right down to casting, which they organized themselves, the AIO validated all the elements and symbols linked to Native American cultures.”

As with most cases, Dior was clueless about any wrongdoing until Twitter and Instagram users aired out their frustration in their comment section.

Before deleting some posts, Dior’s social media time captioned their tweet of the ad saying, “An authentic journey deep into the Native American soul in a sacred, founding and secular territory.” YIKES!

As of now, Dior has pulled the advertisement but it’s still circulating on social media. People are pointing out however that a recent release event Dior used Native American imagery.