Dior Called Out for Appropriation After Sharing Insensitive Campaign for New Perfume
Written by SOURCE on August 31, 2019
Dior has shared a campaign for its new Sauvage perfume.
The since-deleted Twitter video showed a man dressed in quintessential Native American garments and dancing in the desert. “We are the land,” the narrator said, “Dior.”
Alongside the visual, the caption read, “An authentic journey deep into the Native American soul in a sacred, founding and secular territory,” with a promise of “more to come.” The scent is slated to release on Sept. 1.
The full-length commercial stars Johnny Depp, who wanders through the desert, occasionally playing his guitar on random rock formations. Interspersed with clips of Depp is footage of the aforementioned man dancing.
Twitter users have slammed Dior for being culturally insensitive and appropriative. As some users have pointed out, Dior’s description on the site is equally racist, characterizing the perfume as having “oriental notes” and being the “fragrance of a new frontier.”
Depp’s appearance in Dior’s commercial recalls the controversy surrounding his role as Tonto in 2013’s The Lone Ranger, which flopped.
Read some reactions to Dior’s campaign below.
