Dolce & Gabbana's Instagram account has been hacked after a controversial 'racist' ad
21 November 2018, 14:21 | Updated: 21 November 2018, 17:06
The Cultural Affairs Bureau have now reportedly cancelled their show in Shanghai, China.
Dolce and Gabbana (yeah, them again…) caught some heat for their latest social media campaign, which was branded "racist".
As part of the #DGTheGreatShow campaign and their Shanghai show on November 21, the Italian fashion house shared a series of videos featuring an Asian model struggling to use chopsticks to eat traditional Italian dishes of pizza, spaghetti and Sicilian cannoli.
The offensive videos – which were posted to Chinese social media platform Weibo – have been accused of perpetuating racist stereotypes with people calling out the "outdated" cultural symbols such as lanterns, and the styling of the model.
Jing Daily, a digital publication which reports on luxury consumer trends in China, revealed that "Boycott Dolce" was mentioned on Weibo more than 18,000 times and the backlash soon spread across the internet like wildfire.
dolce gabbana is literal trash for posting a racist ad and due to blacklash claiming they were hacked. you're telling me by having an asian woman act all clueless/cute while using chopsticks to eat a canoli like dish isn't emphasizing the current westernized pov of asian women?
— Megan Yeung (@melonny3) November 21, 2018
The mess that is Dolce & Gabanna right now after their racist attack on China. I can’t get over trying to teach chinese how to eat pasta and what it is, by showing how dumb they are. It was even more offensive than the pizza and canneloni and that’s saying something omg pic.twitter.com/IzMJ7wrMwD
— I miss Peter Parker (@NadiaJPLE) November 21, 2018
Dolce & Gabbana... THIS AINT IT. Y’all ain’t getting a dime from me after this. https://t.co/HESOmTNn56
— jenny🎋范美丽 (@taerouge) November 21, 2018
#dolce&gabbana#racist
— elisa_2017 (@awuwuawu) November 21, 2018
Dolce&Gabbana is a brand full of racism, and not just to China, the racism is to everyone who use chopsticks!
That was only the start of all the drama, though. Yep, it actually gets wayyyyyy worse.
Instagram account Diet Prada shared screenshots of direct messages which were reportedly sent by Stefano Gabbana himself. The gross DMs refer to "China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia" and asks "so you are racist because you eat dogs?".
Dolce & Gabbana then claimed that their official account, as well as Stefano Gabbana's, had been hacked. "Our legal office is urgently investigating," they wrote on Instagram. "We are very sorry for any distress caused by these unauthorized posts, comments and direct messages. We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China." However, people weren't exactly buying it or in the forgiving mood.
And to top it off, models slowly started pulling out of the D&G show. Oh, and then the Chinese D&G ambassadors… Before it was reportedly cancelled by Cultural Affairs Bureau.
lol @ Dolce & Gabbana for the classic "we accidentally made some racist content but instead of apologising for it and taking responsibility we're just gonna say our account was hacked!" pic.twitter.com/SNJdtdF972
— Olly Browning (@yourolly) November 21, 2018
The brand have been a little problematic from the jump.
Stefano Gabbana has made several homophobic remarks in the past and even referred to children conceived through IVF as "synthetic". Oh, and then there was that time D&G made a whole collection around racist images of black women and when they labeled a pair of shoes as "slave sandals". The list goes on, tbh. It's pretty clear that D&G should take a lil break from designing and maybe take their time to educate themselves about other cultures.
