Crisis Communications took Centerstage for Dolce & Gabbana in the People's Republic of China last week.
It was not the kind of publicity they had anticipated, and it certainly was a far cry from the kind of publicity they had planned for. Instead of fashion journalists, influencers, celebrities and the Who's Who of the glittering, glamorous world of fashion extolling and praising their "Love Letter" one-hour long extravaganza runway show in Shanghai, they found themselves inundated with a PR crisis, and a Retail crisis they could not possibly have imagined.
Wednesday it was announced that the "Love Letter" extravaganza show was cancelled. Thursday news broke that their products were being dropped from several major online platforms, and Friday Lane Crawford in Hong Kong announced that they were dropping off retail for D&G too.
All in all, not a very good week for the Italian luxury fashion brand.
Racial and Cultural sensitivity is a massive issue these days around the world, and I suppose such caution towards such sensitivities were thrown to the wind by the content creators of the promotional videos of the extravaganza.
I shan't go into detail of what those videos are- just google them and you'll see the news trending top on the search engine- but let's just say that it involved a gigantic plate of spaghetti, a very large pizza, a thick, well filled cannelloni, one Chinese model dressed in chinoiserie, and a pair of chopsticks.
And of course, what fuelled the fire was the revelation of the co-founder's Instagram comments that represented his personal PR style.
Unfortunately what had previously worked for the markets of US (ugly Selena Gomez) and UK (synthetic children of Elton John) or even Europe did not go down so well with a good proportion of the mainland Chinese, and the diaspora this time.
There are just a few things my head just cannot get around.
Like, why, of all the bloody things in the world, did they use chopsticks as the main concept. Thousands of years of Chinese history and you make a joke about it. Sure, the Italians aren't the youngest civilization on the planet but hey, not so nice to diss each other, isn't it?
Also, why, of all the frigging themes one can have in the world, did they decide to portray us Chinese finding the cannelloni too large to pick up with our chopsticks as if we didn't know how to eat it and as if we didn't know to use a fork and knife? I mean, it isn't like we're ignorant fools, and neither is it that we don't know how to appreciate a good Italian meal.
Here is a luxury Italian brand promoting a gorgeous, glamorous runway show in Shanghai for the likes of the rich, the uber rich and the luxe in the country.... and their ads are basically saying that these (customers) do not know Italian food, are ill exposed to foreign cultures, are only familiar with the usage of chopsticks, will try to use chopsticks (aka our own styles) for everything, and are stubborn-brained.
Look, even if some Chinese dude pissed you off in the course of business, transferring your disdain and resentment into social media content was not the wisest thing to do.
There are a few things about the Chinese culture that I believe strongly one must never touch, not even as a joke, unless it is between us own Chinese, then good and fine. Don't touch our martial arts, don't make fun of our operas, don't chuckle at our language, and don't ever, ever, ever f**k with our food.
We're defensive like that.
Sure, we Chinese may be part of the diaspora and we may not be that fantastic with our chopstick skill (tofu challenge, anyone?) or we may hail from all the different provinces in China and so do not understand each other very well. We may even argue and fight, but that's our business and wise it is anyone else that don't mess with our s***.
Someone mentioned to me that she thought the peeps from the fashion industry were disconnected from the rest of the world, that they thought of themselves as kings and queens and who surrounded themselves with like-minded people, bootlickers, and worshippers, that they sought to think of themselves as an elusive, elite, royal bunch who interpreted the world on their own terms and had everyone to trail behind them.
I don't know if such a description would apply to everyone in the industry, but I've met a fair few, and seeing what I see here, well, poison begets poison, and yes, there definitely are.
It was not the kind of publicity they had anticipated, and it certainly was a far cry from the kind of publicity they had planned for. Instead of fashion journalists, influencers, celebrities and the Who's Who of the glittering, glamorous world of fashion extolling and praising their "Love Letter" one-hour long extravaganza runway show in Shanghai, they found themselves inundated with a PR crisis, and a Retail crisis they could not possibly have imagined.
Wednesday it was announced that the "Love Letter" extravaganza show was cancelled. Thursday news broke that their products were being dropped from several major online platforms, and Friday Lane Crawford in Hong Kong announced that they were dropping off retail for D&G too.
All in all, not a very good week for the Italian luxury fashion brand.
Racial and Cultural sensitivity is a massive issue these days around the world, and I suppose such caution towards such sensitivities were thrown to the wind by the content creators of the promotional videos of the extravaganza.
I shan't go into detail of what those videos are- just google them and you'll see the news trending top on the search engine- but let's just say that it involved a gigantic plate of spaghetti, a very large pizza, a thick, well filled cannelloni, one Chinese model dressed in chinoiserie, and a pair of chopsticks.
And of course, what fuelled the fire was the revelation of the co-founder's Instagram comments that represented his personal PR style.
Unfortunately what had previously worked for the markets of US (ugly Selena Gomez) and UK (synthetic children of Elton John) or even Europe did not go down so well with a good proportion of the mainland Chinese, and the diaspora this time.
There are just a few things my head just cannot get around.
Like, why, of all the bloody things in the world, did they use chopsticks as the main concept. Thousands of years of Chinese history and you make a joke about it. Sure, the Italians aren't the youngest civilization on the planet but hey, not so nice to diss each other, isn't it?
Also, why, of all the frigging themes one can have in the world, did they decide to portray us Chinese finding the cannelloni too large to pick up with our chopsticks as if we didn't know how to eat it and as if we didn't know to use a fork and knife? I mean, it isn't like we're ignorant fools, and neither is it that we don't know how to appreciate a good Italian meal.
Here is a luxury Italian brand promoting a gorgeous, glamorous runway show in Shanghai for the likes of the rich, the uber rich and the luxe in the country.... and their ads are basically saying that these (customers) do not know Italian food, are ill exposed to foreign cultures, are only familiar with the usage of chopsticks, will try to use chopsticks (aka our own styles) for everything, and are stubborn-brained.
Look, even if some Chinese dude pissed you off in the course of business, transferring your disdain and resentment into social media content was not the wisest thing to do.
There are a few things about the Chinese culture that I believe strongly one must never touch, not even as a joke, unless it is between us own Chinese, then good and fine. Don't touch our martial arts, don't make fun of our operas, don't chuckle at our language, and don't ever, ever, ever f**k with our food.
We're defensive like that.
Sure, we Chinese may be part of the diaspora and we may not be that fantastic with our chopstick skill (tofu challenge, anyone?) or we may hail from all the different provinces in China and so do not understand each other very well. We may even argue and fight, but that's our business and wise it is anyone else that don't mess with our s***.
Someone mentioned to me that she thought the peeps from the fashion industry were disconnected from the rest of the world, that they thought of themselves as kings and queens and who surrounded themselves with like-minded people, bootlickers, and worshippers, that they sought to think of themselves as an elusive, elite, royal bunch who interpreted the world on their own terms and had everyone to trail behind them.
I don't know if such a description would apply to everyone in the industry, but I've met a fair few, and seeing what I see here, well, poison begets poison, and yes, there definitely are.