Fashion
Dolce & Gabbana's New Ad Shows A Chinese Woman Struggling To Use Chopsticks
20 November 2018
In news that will surprise no one acquainted with the Italian fashion house's history of highly problematic branding decisions, Dolce & Gabbana has produced an advertising campaign that leans heavily on racist and sexist stereotyping.
The campaign, designed to help the label ingratiate itself with the Chinese market, stars a Chinese woman struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks, all while a male narrator says things like, "is it too huge for you?" as she faces off with an over-sized cannoli.
While a series of these videos is still available to view on Dolce & Gabbana's official Instagram (which is unavailable to users in China due to government restrictions), the brand was forced to delete them from Chinese social network Weibo after sparking mass backlash.
The phrase "Boycott Dolce" has been registered more than 18, 000 times on Weibo, according to Chinese fashion publication Jing Daily. Over on Instagram, the ads are being called everything from "racist" to "tacky" by people from all over the world.
The greatest tragedy here? That Dolce didn't make a video starring white people struggling to use chopsticks — comedy gold every time.
Screencap via Instagram