RACISM IN MARKETING

Racism is something that is still revolving in the world from the ancient past history. Even after the revolutions or eras we have come into it still seems to exist. Racism being a very sensitive topic, it needs to be handled very carefully and especially when we are delivering things on a global platform. It can hurt peoples sentiments in many ways.

There would be many examples of the blunders brands have done while marketing themselves and got into the controversial issue of being racist or biased towards communities or kinds. One such example is of the global luxury label D&G Dolce & Gabbana.

The brand was suppose to have a fashion show and event in Shanghai recently, but it never happened as it had a last minute close call of being cancelled as everyone decided to boycott it for the racist advertisement the brand made for promoting. The brand created a small video of a model in a Chinese traditional outfit, trying to eat an Italian pizza with chopsticks and showing them the tricks of eating it.

People over the internet got enraged upon seeing this video of the social media page of the brand. Who knew that just a pair of chopsticks used for another cuisine could hurt so many people and put the brand a tag of being racist towards the Chinese Race of people. This whole act was very offending and it affected the brand with such a controversial situation.

The Designers apologised immediately for the act but it was of no help. This is not the first such incident to happen, there have been many more by many major global brands. Thus we can conclude that Racism is a very important aspect to look upon when its about marketing and especially in terms of glocalization.