It’s tough for advertisers to win these days.
Last week, Gucci unveiled its newest ad campaign, featuring exclusively black models and inspired by black art and youth culture. Nonetheless, the images almost immediately came under fire. They were denounced as cultural exploitation and “soul drag.”
High fashion has been increasingly criticized for its lack of diversity—and Gucci’s casting director recently said outright that his brand had a problem. The ad campaign was an effort to “reset the damage done and start the business back on the road of inclusiveness,” he said.
In a news release announcing the pre-fall 2017 ad campaign, Gucci said it pays homage to international black culture in the 1960s. The brand’s inspirations included Malick Sidibé, a photographer from Mali whose photos depicted the ‘60s party scene; London’s recent “Made You Look” exhibit, which featured photos of “Dandyism and Black Masculinity”; and Britain’s Northern Soul movement.
But critics say that’s not enough. BET bemoaned how Gucci’s campaign would remain a “half-hearted effort” until it had involved “POCs in the creative process, actively working to appeal to POCs.”
Others on Twitter echoed the sentiment, saying black models count little unless the brand also partners with black artists, works with black designers, and markets to black consumers. Several contrasted Gucci with the 1990s label FUBU, an acronym for “For Us, By Us.”
“Stunning images. Gives me a sense of nostalgia. A sense of community. But you don’t need much sense to see Gucci exploiting black culture. … All I’m saying is Gucci isn’t fubu and this ad strikes something in me as a black woman. Which ultimately saddens me,” one woman wrote in a series of Tweets.
In the New York Times this weekend, writer R. Eric Thomas asked “whose soul is it selling” with the ad campaign.
“While the campaign purports to celebrate black soul, it smacks of performance rather than genuine homage,” he wrote. “Is it offensive? Not really. Is it appropriation? Well, there’s the rub. It would be if the ads included the culture. Instead, Gucci presents a reverent, painstakingly recreated facsimile of a culture. More than anything, the campaign is about the look. It’s just drag. This is soul as drag.”
Others took issue with Gucci’s audition videos, which the brand also released. “The models were asked a series of questions, including: ‘What’s your spirit animal?’ (which is an overall big no-no) and ‘What does it mean to have soul?’ (which can be seen as stereotyping). Finally, they were asked to dance to Duke Browner’s ‘Crying Over You,’” a Huffington Post Canada article complained.
By posting those audition tapes online, Gucci “loses even the appearance of being benign,” Thomas’ New York Times piece said.
