If you were following c-ent yesterday, you would have heard that Chinese social media blew up because of a litany of racist comments made from Stefano Gabbana's instagram account. The backlash was immediate. D&G lost many things, two brand ambassadors, the entire China market and people's respect. Below is a quick summary of everything that has happened.
For more details, please head on over to c-drama tweets, they really did justice to this by covering it in detail.
- Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana was scheduled to hold a fashion show on November 21, 2018 in Shanghai.
- A series of video ads were released a few days ahead of the fashion show. They feature a model attempting to eat food using chopsticks. The ads have been criticized for being offensive and derogatory. The videos were taken down from D&G's Weibo but not from Twitter and Instagram.
- In a private chat on Instagram where a netizen confronts the designer directly, Stefano Gabbana defended the videos and said that they was taken down from Chinese social media because of his office, had it been him, he would not take down the post. He also goes on a rant, referring to China as a 'country of shit' and saying words like 'China ignorant dirty smelling mafia.' D&G came under fire after screenshots of the conversation spread on social media.
- As a result, Chinese models walked out prior to the D&G show.
- Many stars publicly condemned the act and expressed their love for their country.
- Celebrities who were supposed to attend the show went on a mass boycott. Some of the names include Chen Kun, Zhang Ziyi, Karry Wang Junkai, Li Bingbing, Leon Leong and Dilireba.
- Chen Kun was trending because he had just landed at the airport in Shanghai to attend the show when he took one look at the news and turned around to take the next flight back to Beijing.
- Stefano Gabbana posted a screenshot of the racist comments that he allegedly wrote with 'Not Me' in red block letters. He claims that his Instagram account had been hacked. He loves China, the Chinese Culture and he is sorry for what happened.
- D&G was forced to postpone the show.
- An announcement was made via D&G's official instagram claiming that the brand's account and Stefano Gabbana's account had been hacked and they are urgently investigating.
- Dilireba and Karry Wang Junkai who are both D&G brand ambassadors announced through their respective studios that they have ended their contracts with D&G.
- The next day, giant online retailers like Taobao also announced a mass boycott.
- D&G issued a statement on Twitter and Instagram.
0 comments: