Dior ad featuring Johnny Depp as a Native American slammed for 'cultural misappropriation'
Dior has taken down the latest advert of its Sauvage fragrance featuring actor Johnny Depp after it received heavy backlash from social media users over its appropriation of Native American culture.
The fashion house was called out for cultural misappropriation hours after it uploaded the advert on Twitter. Dior also removed an Instagram post explaining that the campaign was designed with Native American consultants.
Depp, as part of the Sauvage campaign, stars in a film called 'We Are the Land' that is described in the marketing materials as an "ode to Mother Earth."
The narrator in the ad says: "We are the land" as a Native American man performs a traditional dance. Depp, in the ad, can be seen wearing a multi-colored poncho, playing a guitar along with a dark-haired model in a Native American dress.
The luxury designer brand deleted the video from its social media accounts just hours after the ad was posted on Friday. Reports state that one of the deleted posts had promised to reveal more details about the fragrance ad campaign on Monday.
One Twitter user called @AmyBertrand slammed the ad, writing: "If you wanted to be authentic, you should have made a perfume called "colonizer," a journey deep into the colonial soul, in a stolen territory. Where markets itself on racism and stupidity. More to come. September 1st." While another user @coffeestupidity wrote: "This has got to be that thing where companies try to use outrage as a marketing tool, right?."
Multiple critics also slammed Dior over the fragrance's controversial name 'Sauvage'. The word, in French, has varied meanings, including wild, unspoiled and savage. The Sauvage fragrance was first introduced in the mid-1960s.
Depps' involvement in the controversial advert was also criticized as he is the celebrity face of the fragrance. The actor's portrayal of Tonto in the movie 'The Lone Ranger' in 2013 had also received backlash despite the actor working with consultants from the group Americans for Indian Opportunity. The group's founder had reportedly adopted Depp as an honorary citizen of the Comanche Nation. The same group's consultants were reportedly hired for the Dior ad.
Ron 'Looking Elk' Martinez, a Native American who was consulted on the film, said in an Instagram post: "Cultural appropriation for us is a huge thing because we've been dealing with this since colonization. Our presence on this project is really to help. So for us to make sure that the look and the identity is authentic is very important." The post was later deleted.