Q&A: Dead & Gone in China, how did this happen?
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Title : Q&A: Dead & Gone in China, how did this happen?
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news-today.world | Hi guys, I'm sure loads of you have read about the D&G fiasco in China. It started with a horrifically racist ad campaign in very bad taste to promote their upcoming fashion show in Shanghai (which has since been cancelled), then a lot of really nasty, racist messages from Stefano Gabbana on his Instagram account (which he claims was hacked) and then a really strange 'apology' video which was neither sincere nor convincing - this all culminated with the Look, this is one of the biggest stories in the last week so I am not going to try to tell you what happened as you probably already know a lot about it. Instead, as someone who has experience in marketing and advertising working with both Western and Chinese clients and as someone who speaks Italian and understands Italian culture well, I'm going to be answering a series of questions put to me by my friends in Singapore about how this came about and I'll try to do these questions justice. As a British-Chinese person who is looking at this story unfolding from London, I hope to be able to bring some new light to the issue because I see a lot of one-sided coverage coming out of Asia, mostly just Chinese people venting their anger at D&G for what they see as a racist insult. So I'm going to look at the issues beyond the anger that the Chinese are feeling.
Q: How the hell did they fuck this up so badly? Isn't D&G a famous brand, with a big enough marketing budget and surely they should have been able to hire the best people to produce a high quality ad campaign?
A: Well, it is at best a badly misjudged decision to try to push the boundaries by doing a provocative ad campaign like that to raise the profile of their fashion show - D&G are in a highly competitive fashion market and the last thing you want to do is to spend millions on producing an ad campaign that is bland and boring, those will get mostly ignored by all but hardcore D&G fans. Some brands are happy with that, they are merely appealing to their core audience but D&G were clearly trying to reach out to people who had never spent money with them before, to try to get their attention and get them to consider purchasing D&G products as opposed to their competitors' products. Now the only way to do that is to go viral on social media, so that D&G will be trending on Twitter, so people would want to share the D&G latest ad with their friends on social media and the only way to do that is to think outside the box. They needed something original, something so mind blowing that it would explode all over the internet in hours. So I think the decision to do something controversial was a carefully calculated one, it was in the execution of the ad which failed badly because it went viral for the wrong reasons and now D&G is effectively Dead & Gone in the China market. Therefore if you're going to make a risky marketing decision, make sure it doesn't end in catastrophe - hire the very best people who know the market well.
Q: Could this huge mistake have been prevented? Why did they make such a costly error?
A: Well there was one important step that they seem to have omitted - it's called the market research focus group. Basically, before you show the ad to the general public, you show it to a small audience first but this audience should be made of people who are from your target audience. So in this case, they needed to at least show this ad to a group of say 100 Chinese people in China (that's right, you can't have a single white person in that sample of 100) and see how they react to the ad. If they had done that, the focus group would have condemned the ad as a pile of horrifically offensive, racist crap that would be highly damaging to the brand and they would have pulled it. However, there have been cases whereby the opinions of the focus groups have been totally ignored because the client chooses to ignore all negative feedback - it could be because they have such big egos and they think they know more than the people in the focus groups, it could be because it is probably too late to make major changes to the ad campaign or that they have run out of money to make any more changes, or simply because some people just hate being told that their work has turned out to be utterly dreadful. But any decent ad agency would be foolish to ignore overwhelmingly negative feedback from their focus group which leads me to believe that D&G were probably so arrogant that they foolishly skipped this vital step.
Q: Why were the ads so offensive to Chinese people?
A: If the ad was meant to be humourous, if it was meant to be so funny that people would share it on social media, then you have to understand Chinese humour to begin with. Many people thought that the ad was making fun of Chinese culture, it didn't come across as a tribute but rather a rather crass way to poke fun at ignorant Chinese people. Furthermore, humour is extremely culture specific and the ad wasn't at all suited for a Chinese audience - the first reaction would be to think that these are a bunch of racist Italian assholes making fun of Chinese people rather than 'oh this is a parody or a tribute'. Look, I have seen the reverse before and it did work - this was back in the 1980s when an American hidden camera comedy programme set themselves up in a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles. They took away the knives and forks and left the American diners only with chopsticks, so of course, they struggled trying to pick up the food with chopsticks and it was pure, slapstick comedy that made a lot of people laugh. But the fact is, when the white people were told that this was all just a prank for television, they were more than happy to laugh it off and even appear on national television struggling with chopsticks. They really didn't care if they looked inept or silly struggling with the chopsticks - they saw the humour in it and were happy laugh it off. The same cannot be said about Chinese people.
You see, a lot of Chinese people want to be seen as being acquainted with the ways of the West, so for example, they would like to think that they could show up at a posh restaurant in London or New York and know exactly what kind of starters to order, which knife or spoon to use with each course and be able to navigate their way through a long wine list. Whether or not they have the knowledge doesn't matter - perhaps their experience of Western cuisine extends no further than KFC and McDonald's, nonetheless they would like to see themselves as cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Any suggestion that they are anything less than totally cosmopolitan and sophisticated would cause great offence because it would be perceived as a personal insult, an act of great disrespect. Let me give you an example: when I go to Chinese restaurants with my white friends, they wouldn't hesitate to ask me for help with their chopsticks if they don't know how to use them properly. But I have this memory of my parents struggling with a knife and fork in a steak restaurant from years ago, but I was simply conditioned to not say anything and pretend that I never saw it because even acknowledging it by offering them any advice or assistance would bring them great embarrassment. Yes, talk about the elephant in the room - such is the nature of entertainment and advertising, the first rule is that you have got to know your target audience well.
Q: Wait, I've seen plenty of Chinese celebrities and comedians make fun of themselves and indulge in self-deprecation.
A: Absolutely. May I stress that they are Chinese celebrities making fun of themselves so that's their right to do so. I am fascinated with the Chinese celebrity Jin Xing 金星 and I first got to see her in action when she took part in the reality TV programme The Amazing Race China 3 极速前进第三季and my regular readers will know that I love The Amazing Race. I'm not saying that Chinese people don't have a sense of humour but Chinese humour is quite hard to understand for a non-Chinese person. I'm not sure someone watching Jin Xing would get her brand of humour even if they were supplied with subtitles. But you see, that's Jin Xing making fun of herself - I remember this scene where she totally failed at a task she had to do in Russia during the race which involved some mathematics. After totally sucking at the task and begging another team to help her, she confessed to the camera, "我的数学是在失败学院学来的!" (I learnt my mathematics at the institute of failure.) Yes she is making fun of herself and we find little quips like that funny - Jin Xing is free to make fun of herself but that's quite different from the D&G ad, when it seemed like it was a bunch of white Italians mocking and making fun of Chinese people in a racist and offensive manner. The only people D&G could have made fun of in their ads were themselves or at least Italians - they should have been a lot more careful in the execution of cross-border humour.
Q: So are you therefore suggesting that the person who came up with the whole concept of the ad was not only a white person, but probably one who didn't speak Chinese or have any understanding of Chinese culture and China at all then?
A: Yes, almost certainly. D&G has since pulled the ad once the hatred and anger became apparent how it was the monumental fuck up of the century and even if you were associated with the ad in anyway as say the director, producer or voice-over artist, you wouldn't want to admit to it publicly for fear of the wrath of the Chinese public. I feel sorry for the poor Chinese model featured in the ad - she must have thought that she was getting her big break being featured in a major ad campaign for D&G but she's probably lying low right now and I can't imagine her getting much work in the near future as her face has been associated with this highly offensive ad campaign. So no, I scoured the internet and couldn't find a list of producers, directors, script writers etc the same way you would find a cast & crew list for any major ad campaign. The content of the ad is so extremely offensive that the logical conclusion is that it has got to be an ignorant, somewhat racist white person who came up with this pile of shit - but if it had been a Chinese person, then that's highly implausible because you don't need to be some kind of marketing expert or PR guru to know that this will cause a lot of offence and be totally disastrous for D&G in China. Oh no, you just need to be Chinese and have a bit of common sense. In any case, if this was such an important ad campaign, would Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have simply outsourced it to an ad agency without checking the product? No, the buck stops with them so it is right to blame them.
Q: So would Domenico and Stefano of D&G have been directly involved in the ad campaign (as claimed by some)?
A: Again, this is speculation as we don't know for sure. These two Italians are designers at the end of the day, they are not directors or script writers. Most people who are that successful at what they do stick to what they do best - so if a big fashion label wanted to produce a high profile ad campaign, they have the budget to engage the best in the business to produce a good ad. This is big business and big companies spend millions on their ad campaigns every year - so most of the process would have been handled by film production companies who are specialists in producing ads. Nonetheless, the production companies are there to produce an ad that the client wants and the client is king because they're paying for everything. The director is not free at all to be creative - instead, he usually kowtows to the client and says, "are you happy with this shot? Does this look right to you? Would you like to change anything?" Anything to make the client happy. Heck, I remember I was in this shoot once as an actor when people from the client's company literally took over and a bunch of them start shouting random directions at us during the shoot. The director got so fed up at being usurped in this manner like, what the hell are you hiring me as a director for if you want to take over my job? He got so fed up he protested by leaving the building - we thought he was like going to the toilet or make a phone call, but he didn't return for like 20 minutes. Somebody had to go pacify him before the shoot could continue. So no, based on my years of experience in this industry, I would not put the blame on the production company as they are just there to serve the client.
Q: Is this merely a big cultural misunderstanding then or is it just a case of pure racism?
A: It may feel tempting to accuse D&G of pure racism. But allow me to explain, years ago, I was involved in an ad campaign for a big European car brand's China ad campaign as a voice-over. I could barely believe what I saw in the script, after all, this was a very famous brand yet they had totally humbled themselves for the Chinese market. They went in there introducing themselves as if no one in China had ever heard of them and I thought, that's ridiculous - as everyone in Europe knows this brand, even children as the cars are on our streets in all European countries. But I was told by my Chinese colleague, "yes that may be the case in London, Stockholm or Amsterdam but not in Shenyang, Wuhan or Xiamen. You can't go into the China market expecting people to want to buy a product just because it is European or because people in Europe buy it - that may have been the case in the 1980s and 1990s when China was just opening up but not today. The local car market in China is dominated by the big four: SAIC Motor, Dongfeng, FAW and Chang'an but apart from those, there are still plenty of other players. So a European brand trying to compete in such a crowded, competitive market, well they need to understand what they are getting themselves into. This is why you always need to spend money to engage local experts who can tell you how to make your ad appeal to your audience."
He continued, "So you can't do an ad campaign expecting people in China to have that familiarity with your brand identity as an outsider even if you're such a well known brand in Europe - some people will know the brand, others won't but coming across as humble rather than arrogant is always a safer route to take when marketing a Western brand to the Chinese. You can go into a market with a rather arrogant ad campaign if you know for sure you are already dominant in that market and that ad campaign is like a victory parade. But you don't want to take any risks in coming across as overly complacent - at best you will be ignored, at worst you will be mocked not just by your peers in the advertising industry, but by the public as well. You have to be very aware that whilst you're creating an ad to please the client, it still needs to go down well with the public at the end of the day. There's no point in creating an ad that the client loves but the public hates, because the client will still turn around and blame you regardless at the end of the day - that's why creating an effective ad campaign is devilishly difficult as you're trying to please so many different parties at the same time. And of course, if you are spending several millions dollars on an ad campaign, then you do want to make sure you get it right."
Q: Or, is this an example of cultural appropriation then?
A: Firstly, we need to understand what is cultural appropriation: it is the adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture and it is done by an insensitive way that often causes offence. We live in such a politically correct age when even an American teenager who wore a Cheongsam 旗袍 as her prom dress got savagely attacked on Twitter for cultural appropriation - now I felt that in that instance, that was when the PC brigade went too far as that American teenager didn't mean to cause any offence to Chinese people nor was she making fun of the dress though some of the photos she posted on Instagram with her friends were questionable as they were making awkward poses with their palms clasped together, like Chinese people don't even do that: that's more typical of what Thai people would do. So she's probably not a highly educated, average American teenager who is quite ignorant, but I don't think there's any malice in her actions, just some questionable judgment which I shall chalk up to her inexperience and youth. Even then, see how sensitive the issue can be because Chinese people have suffered a lot of racism at the hands of white people - granted that lot this racism dates back from less enlightened times and things are thankfully far better today (take it from me, I'm a British-Chinese man living in London), we're still always cautious when dealing with anything ambigious. It's a bit like this refugee from Iraq I met who told me that sounds of fireworks make him freak out, because it reminds him of the bombing raids he lived through in Iraq. He can't help it - it is practically a reflex action and by the same token, it is understandable that Chinese are sensitive when it comes to the issue of white people being very racist.
So calling the D&G an example of cultural appropriate is like calling Hurricane Katrina a light drizzle - yes there's rain involved in both the hurricane and the drizzle, but it is on a completely different scale altogether. These are a bunch of Italians culturally appropriating the chopstick in a most disrespectful and crass way. But please, I don't want you to think that we can only ever publicly display culture that belongs to our ancestors or the country we come from - as long as you do it in a sensitive and respectful manner, nobody is going to have any issues with you. Let me give you a lovely example: there's a beautiful cover of Habanera from the opera Carmen (by Bizet) by Chinese singer Grace Chang 葛蘭 and it was recorded sometime in the late 1950s. In Chang's version sung in Mandarin Chinese, she remained faithful to the original operatic setting and the lyrics were not a faithful translation of the original French version, but nonetheless it captured the spirit of the original. Most of all, Chang's version allowed a Mandarin-speaking audience back then to access a piece of music that they would not have otherwise understood, she also brought operatic music to the masses because many of her fans who loved the song back then would only know her version as they were unlikely to have been to the opera in somewhere like Paris or London to have heard the original sung in French. She is a Chinese singer taking a piece of French culture and doing a beautiful interpretation of it, nobody can accuse her of cultural appropriation!
Q: Putting aside the ad campaign, do you believe that D&G's and Stefano Gabbana's personal Instagram accounts were hacked? You know there are thousands of Chinese trolls online who are totally capable of something like that.
A: The irony is that it doesn't matter, it is a moot point - whether or not they were hacked, unless they can produce some kind of irrefutable proof that it was precisely what happened, it is the court of public opinion that is going to judge this. Instagram accounts do get hacked unfortunately but the public can either say, okay it was hacked and he didn't say those nasty racist things about China or they can believe that he did say all those horrible, spiteful, racist things and then chickened out by blaming it on a hacker. And in the case of Stefano Gabbana, oh goodness me - he has behaved very poorly on social media in the past like a petulant teenager, he has gotten into many petty disputes and arguments with celebrities from Miley Cyrus to Kate Moss to Elton John - for example, he said about Selena Gomez, "She's so ugly!!!" (that's right, three exclamation marks) which is the kind of dumb insult we've come to expect from someone as stupid and crass as President Trump but yes, Gabbana has sunk that low too. So regardless of whether or not Gabbana actually did send all those nasty racist messages or not, ironically it doesn't really matter because the court of public opinion has found him guilty based on his past behaviour on social. Mind you, a judge would do exactly the same thing in a court of law - the past behaviour of a suspect would probably give you a very clear indication of whether or not he is capable of committing such a crime. So even if he is innocent in this case, the Chinese people are treating him as if he is totally 100% guilty because it does very much sound like the kind of crass and dumb thing he would say on social media.
After all, you have to look at the timeline of what happened - this wasn't some random hacking of the Instagram accounts (having said that, Instagram accounts get hacked all the time, even mine got hacked earlier this year). Firstly, this happened right after millions of Chinese people were enraged by their racist ad campaign and Gabbana came across as an indignant, stubborn spoilt child who was puzzled as to why the Chinese public were not totally in awe of his genius but instead choosing to condemn his latest ad campaign. One theory to explain this is the "emperor's new clothes" - I am sure you all know the story by Hans Christian Andersen. Well in a company like D&G, there are two emperors, as suggested by the name of the company. Employees working there often kowtow to the emperors who surround themselves by a team of 'yes men', basically a team of people who will agree with the boss, praise the boss and do as they are told even if they know deep down inside that the boss is making a terrible mistake. These people often believe that they will get further in their careers by pleasing their bosses this way; so if this is indeed the case at D&G, then it could be that nobody within the company had the guts to tell their bosses that their China ad campaign was a total catastrophe and that it should be pulled to avoid disaster. So this may explain why Gabbana appeared to be so indignant in defending his ad campaign, especially if all his staff are simply 'yes men' who lavish a lot of praise on him everyday.
Q: What will happen to D&G in China? Are they truly Dead & Gone in the Chinese market then?
A: Well in the short run, they'll lie pretty low and yes they will lose money. But in the long run, people have short memories. Remember how so many people were absolutely outraged when United Airlines dragged a 69 year old doctor David Dao off a plane in April 2017, leaving him with horrific injuries? Sure everyone on social media was outraged and called for a boycott of United Airlines - kinda easy if you don't live in the US and probably would never fly United in any case. If you had to fly between two cities in the US, you would probably look for the cheapest options and chances are United would be up there as they have a comprehensive domestic network in the US. Guess what? They're still in business today, they settled the case with David Dao out of court for an undisclosed sum of money and what happened at Chicago O'Hare airport is now but a distant memory from last year. Unfortunately, crap like that happens on flights all the time and it is not as if it is just United who are capable of really stupid shit like that. Oh it happens on so many outlines and the budget airlines are particularly bad and sadly, the public have become so desensitized to this kind of crap that we are just relieved that we have safely arrived at the destination and not crashed into the sea like Lion Air 610 which crashed shortly after take off from Jakarta airport on 29 October, killing all 189 on board. And remember the whole tragic saga involving flight MH370? Well, guess what? Malaysian Airlines are still in business today despite everything.
But then again, perhaps airlines are not a good comparison in this case: after all, if I have to fly from city A to city B on this particular date, I really don't have that many options. I am going to Malta in December (yes, it's a pre-Christmas break for me) and there aren't that many flights going to Malta - I wanted to fly direct as I didn't fancy turning a 3 hour flight into a 5 to 6 hour journey with a stopover somewhere like Paris, Milan or Geneva. So it was pretty much the availability of the flights on during the times I wished to travel that determined my choice of airlines: I wanted to get there reasonably early on the day I travel to Malta and get the last flight back to London on the day I return to make the most of my last day there - so there wasn't much choice really in the matter since I had already set my criteria that way. But when I stand in front of my wardrobe deciding what I would like to wear today, I will never be in the situation where I find that I simply have to wear the D&G option. Compare this to a fresh graduate needs to go for a job interview and he only has one formal suit to wear for the occasion, then guess what? The suit is likely to be reasonably cheap, it won't be a designer suit from D&G as young people like that won't be able to afford it. In fact, for most of us, it is pretty easy to boycott D&G as their clothes are very expensive! And even if you are the kind of person who would gladly spend $2,000 on a jacket, then there are still plenty of options for you at that luxury end of the market should you decide to avoid D&G.
So the long term prospects of D&G in China really boils down to whether or not they are good at what they are meant to do: designing beautiful clothes. Will they come up with something so unique, so captivating that every fashionista in 2019 or 2020 will want to wear? If they do, then people in China will focus on the trend that is happening before them and forget this fiasco as it fades away in people's memories. After all, D&G have been a very popular designer brand since the late 1980s and they have been going from strength to strength since - it is unlikely that such a major brand would slip into oblivion over something like that. There's really not much they can do at this stage to make amends in China after the grave offence they have caused, so they are probably going to cut their losses and focus their energies on other markets where they are doing well. But here's my prediction, in the short run, they are dead in the Chinese market - then in 2019, another Western brand will make an equally bad faux pas in dealing with the Chinese market in their marketing campaign and there will be someone else to hate. Some people will make comparisons but then the focus will be on this new villain in town, rather than D&G. Public anger will have a new focus and in due course, D&G will be able to slowly regain their position in the Chinese by showing a sincere effort such as engaging local celebrities and advisors when it comes to their PR & marketing campaigns, but this is going to be a very slow process that will take at least a few years.
Q: Are the Italians racist? Answer honestly!
A: Well the short answer is no. Italians are not racist. Here's the long answer: we have to look at the history of Italy compared to other Western countries. There are plenty of black and Asian people in France and the UK because both countries had loads of colonies in Africa and Asia whereas Italy only tried to colonize countries much later than France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal - furthermore, they never successfully held on to those colonies for as long. These ex-colonies were either lost to other European powers or they managed to kick the Italians out for their independence. So in Italy today, there aren't that many ethnic minorities though they have had an influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa in recent years. So the ethnic minorities in Italy tend to be recent arrives rather than second or third generation descendants of migrants who tend to be far better assimilated (as in the case of France and UK). Furthermore, the problem is that the standard of English in Italy is generally quite poor - so many tourists who don't speak Italian have thought that the locals were rude when they refused to speak English; but the fact is many older Italians struggle with English and simply cannot handle a basic conversation in English. Now that's a reflection on their education system and how English is taught there, but it has nothing to do with racism. As an Italian-speaking Asian person, I've only had very good experiences in Italy but that has a lot to do with me not facing a language barrier when I am there and there was only one incident when I put an Italian woman in her place at the Vatican city, oh but she was being a complete cunt - but was she a racist cunt? She was also rude to the locals. Read the story and you be the judge.
Q: Do I own anything by D&G?
A: I do have a D&G tie but that was from years ago. I don't like D&G's look actually, it is way too loud for me. If you were to look at my Instagram, you'll see that like 80-90% of the posts there are me in my various suits and I'm obsessed with formal wear - I have a very distinctive look that I think reflects my identity and D&G's style simply isn't compatible with what I normally go for. In any case, D&G's clothes are hideously expensive and not really that nice (well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and their style just doesn't appeal to me) - so I don't think it is money worth spending. Here's the thing about fashion: just because something is expensive or comes with a designer label doesn't mean that it is nice. I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of money on designer clothes only to look at best somewhat odd, at worst downright garish. There are a few lesser known designers that I adore - take for example I like two Spanish designers: Mario Moreno Moyano and Ramon San Jurjo. Is they well known? Not at all, but that's perhaps the whole appeal of it - they don't even have that many followers on Instagram. Why would I want to spend so much money on something from a famous designer that has already been seen by thousands, even millions on Instagram when I can get something a lot more unique and special which will make people say, "hey that's so unique, where did you get that from?" I suppose it is a question of one's mentality: do you want to conform to fashion trends or do you want to stand out from the crowd and make a statement? Are you content making a point that you're rich enough to afford something very expensive from a posh luxury brand or do you want to create a style that is uniquely your own that you are confident will impress others?
Okay that's it from me on this issue - I could have gone on a lot more but I think it's more important for me now to turn this over to my readers: what do you guys think about this whole D&G fiasco in China? Would you be boycotting D&G now? Is D&G truly dead and gone in China? Will D&G ever recover in China and how long would that take? What lessons can be learnt from this episode for Western companies looking to do business in China? How did you react to D&G's controversial ads? Have people overreacted to it? Leave a comment below please and many thanks for reading.
Q: How the hell did they fuck this up so badly? Isn't D&G a famous brand, with a big enough marketing budget and surely they should have been able to hire the best people to produce a high quality ad campaign?
A: Well, it is at best a badly misjudged decision to try to push the boundaries by doing a provocative ad campaign like that to raise the profile of their fashion show - D&G are in a highly competitive fashion market and the last thing you want to do is to spend millions on producing an ad campaign that is bland and boring, those will get mostly ignored by all but hardcore D&G fans. Some brands are happy with that, they are merely appealing to their core audience but D&G were clearly trying to reach out to people who had never spent money with them before, to try to get their attention and get them to consider purchasing D&G products as opposed to their competitors' products. Now the only way to do that is to go viral on social media, so that D&G will be trending on Twitter, so people would want to share the D&G latest ad with their friends on social media and the only way to do that is to think outside the box. They needed something original, something so mind blowing that it would explode all over the internet in hours. So I think the decision to do something controversial was a carefully calculated one, it was in the execution of the ad which failed badly because it went viral for the wrong reasons and now D&G is effectively Dead & Gone in the China market. Therefore if you're going to make a risky marketing decision, make sure it doesn't end in catastrophe - hire the very best people who know the market well.
Q: Could this huge mistake have been prevented? Why did they make such a costly error?
A: Well there was one important step that they seem to have omitted - it's called the market research focus group. Basically, before you show the ad to the general public, you show it to a small audience first but this audience should be made of people who are from your target audience. So in this case, they needed to at least show this ad to a group of say 100 Chinese people in China (that's right, you can't have a single white person in that sample of 100) and see how they react to the ad. If they had done that, the focus group would have condemned the ad as a pile of horrifically offensive, racist crap that would be highly damaging to the brand and they would have pulled it. However, there have been cases whereby the opinions of the focus groups have been totally ignored because the client chooses to ignore all negative feedback - it could be because they have such big egos and they think they know more than the people in the focus groups, it could be because it is probably too late to make major changes to the ad campaign or that they have run out of money to make any more changes, or simply because some people just hate being told that their work has turned out to be utterly dreadful. But any decent ad agency would be foolish to ignore overwhelmingly negative feedback from their focus group which leads me to believe that D&G were probably so arrogant that they foolishly skipped this vital step.
Q: Why were the ads so offensive to Chinese people?
A: If the ad was meant to be humourous, if it was meant to be so funny that people would share it on social media, then you have to understand Chinese humour to begin with. Many people thought that the ad was making fun of Chinese culture, it didn't come across as a tribute but rather a rather crass way to poke fun at ignorant Chinese people. Furthermore, humour is extremely culture specific and the ad wasn't at all suited for a Chinese audience - the first reaction would be to think that these are a bunch of racist Italian assholes making fun of Chinese people rather than 'oh this is a parody or a tribute'. Look, I have seen the reverse before and it did work - this was back in the 1980s when an American hidden camera comedy programme set themselves up in a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles. They took away the knives and forks and left the American diners only with chopsticks, so of course, they struggled trying to pick up the food with chopsticks and it was pure, slapstick comedy that made a lot of people laugh. But the fact is, when the white people were told that this was all just a prank for television, they were more than happy to laugh it off and even appear on national television struggling with chopsticks. They really didn't care if they looked inept or silly struggling with the chopsticks - they saw the humour in it and were happy laugh it off. The same cannot be said about Chinese people.
You see, a lot of Chinese people want to be seen as being acquainted with the ways of the West, so for example, they would like to think that they could show up at a posh restaurant in London or New York and know exactly what kind of starters to order, which knife or spoon to use with each course and be able to navigate their way through a long wine list. Whether or not they have the knowledge doesn't matter - perhaps their experience of Western cuisine extends no further than KFC and McDonald's, nonetheless they would like to see themselves as cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Any suggestion that they are anything less than totally cosmopolitan and sophisticated would cause great offence because it would be perceived as a personal insult, an act of great disrespect. Let me give you an example: when I go to Chinese restaurants with my white friends, they wouldn't hesitate to ask me for help with their chopsticks if they don't know how to use them properly. But I have this memory of my parents struggling with a knife and fork in a steak restaurant from years ago, but I was simply conditioned to not say anything and pretend that I never saw it because even acknowledging it by offering them any advice or assistance would bring them great embarrassment. Yes, talk about the elephant in the room - such is the nature of entertainment and advertising, the first rule is that you have got to know your target audience well.
Q: Wait, I've seen plenty of Chinese celebrities and comedians make fun of themselves and indulge in self-deprecation.
Q: So are you therefore suggesting that the person who came up with the whole concept of the ad was not only a white person, but probably one who didn't speak Chinese or have any understanding of Chinese culture and China at all then?
A: Yes, almost certainly. D&G has since pulled the ad once the hatred and anger became apparent how it was the monumental fuck up of the century and even if you were associated with the ad in anyway as say the director, producer or voice-over artist, you wouldn't want to admit to it publicly for fear of the wrath of the Chinese public. I feel sorry for the poor Chinese model featured in the ad - she must have thought that she was getting her big break being featured in a major ad campaign for D&G but she's probably lying low right now and I can't imagine her getting much work in the near future as her face has been associated with this highly offensive ad campaign. So no, I scoured the internet and couldn't find a list of producers, directors, script writers etc the same way you would find a cast & crew list for any major ad campaign. The content of the ad is so extremely offensive that the logical conclusion is that it has got to be an ignorant, somewhat racist white person who came up with this pile of shit - but if it had been a Chinese person, then that's highly implausible because you don't need to be some kind of marketing expert or PR guru to know that this will cause a lot of offence and be totally disastrous for D&G in China. Oh no, you just need to be Chinese and have a bit of common sense. In any case, if this was such an important ad campaign, would Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have simply outsourced it to an ad agency without checking the product? No, the buck stops with them so it is right to blame them.
Q: So would Domenico and Stefano of D&G have been directly involved in the ad campaign (as claimed by some)?
A: Again, this is speculation as we don't know for sure. These two Italians are designers at the end of the day, they are not directors or script writers. Most people who are that successful at what they do stick to what they do best - so if a big fashion label wanted to produce a high profile ad campaign, they have the budget to engage the best in the business to produce a good ad. This is big business and big companies spend millions on their ad campaigns every year - so most of the process would have been handled by film production companies who are specialists in producing ads. Nonetheless, the production companies are there to produce an ad that the client wants and the client is king because they're paying for everything. The director is not free at all to be creative - instead, he usually kowtows to the client and says, "are you happy with this shot? Does this look right to you? Would you like to change anything?" Anything to make the client happy. Heck, I remember I was in this shoot once as an actor when people from the client's company literally took over and a bunch of them start shouting random directions at us during the shoot. The director got so fed up at being usurped in this manner like, what the hell are you hiring me as a director for if you want to take over my job? He got so fed up he protested by leaving the building - we thought he was like going to the toilet or make a phone call, but he didn't return for like 20 minutes. Somebody had to go pacify him before the shoot could continue. So no, based on my years of experience in this industry, I would not put the blame on the production company as they are just there to serve the client.
Q: Is this merely a big cultural misunderstanding then or is it just a case of pure racism?
A: It may feel tempting to accuse D&G of pure racism. But allow me to explain, years ago, I was involved in an ad campaign for a big European car brand's China ad campaign as a voice-over. I could barely believe what I saw in the script, after all, this was a very famous brand yet they had totally humbled themselves for the Chinese market. They went in there introducing themselves as if no one in China had ever heard of them and I thought, that's ridiculous - as everyone in Europe knows this brand, even children as the cars are on our streets in all European countries. But I was told by my Chinese colleague, "yes that may be the case in London, Stockholm or Amsterdam but not in Shenyang, Wuhan or Xiamen. You can't go into the China market expecting people to want to buy a product just because it is European or because people in Europe buy it - that may have been the case in the 1980s and 1990s when China was just opening up but not today. The local car market in China is dominated by the big four: SAIC Motor, Dongfeng, FAW and Chang'an but apart from those, there are still plenty of other players. So a European brand trying to compete in such a crowded, competitive market, well they need to understand what they are getting themselves into. This is why you always need to spend money to engage local experts who can tell you how to make your ad appeal to your audience."
He continued, "So you can't do an ad campaign expecting people in China to have that familiarity with your brand identity as an outsider even if you're such a well known brand in Europe - some people will know the brand, others won't but coming across as humble rather than arrogant is always a safer route to take when marketing a Western brand to the Chinese. You can go into a market with a rather arrogant ad campaign if you know for sure you are already dominant in that market and that ad campaign is like a victory parade. But you don't want to take any risks in coming across as overly complacent - at best you will be ignored, at worst you will be mocked not just by your peers in the advertising industry, but by the public as well. You have to be very aware that whilst you're creating an ad to please the client, it still needs to go down well with the public at the end of the day. There's no point in creating an ad that the client loves but the public hates, because the client will still turn around and blame you regardless at the end of the day - that's why creating an effective ad campaign is devilishly difficult as you're trying to please so many different parties at the same time. And of course, if you are spending several millions dollars on an ad campaign, then you do want to make sure you get it right."
Q: Or, is this an example of cultural appropriation then?
A: Firstly, we need to understand what is cultural appropriation: it is the adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture and it is done by an insensitive way that often causes offence. We live in such a politically correct age when even an American teenager who wore a Cheongsam 旗袍 as her prom dress got savagely attacked on Twitter for cultural appropriation - now I felt that in that instance, that was when the PC brigade went too far as that American teenager didn't mean to cause any offence to Chinese people nor was she making fun of the dress though some of the photos she posted on Instagram with her friends were questionable as they were making awkward poses with their palms clasped together, like Chinese people don't even do that: that's more typical of what Thai people would do. So she's probably not a highly educated, average American teenager who is quite ignorant, but I don't think there's any malice in her actions, just some questionable judgment which I shall chalk up to her inexperience and youth. Even then, see how sensitive the issue can be because Chinese people have suffered a lot of racism at the hands of white people - granted that lot this racism dates back from less enlightened times and things are thankfully far better today (take it from me, I'm a British-Chinese man living in London), we're still always cautious when dealing with anything ambigious. It's a bit like this refugee from Iraq I met who told me that sounds of fireworks make him freak out, because it reminds him of the bombing raids he lived through in Iraq. He can't help it - it is practically a reflex action and by the same token, it is understandable that Chinese are sensitive when it comes to the issue of white people being very racist.
So calling the D&G an example of cultural appropriate is like calling Hurricane Katrina a light drizzle - yes there's rain involved in both the hurricane and the drizzle, but it is on a completely different scale altogether. These are a bunch of Italians culturally appropriating the chopstick in a most disrespectful and crass way. But please, I don't want you to think that we can only ever publicly display culture that belongs to our ancestors or the country we come from - as long as you do it in a sensitive and respectful manner, nobody is going to have any issues with you. Let me give you a lovely example: there's a beautiful cover of Habanera from the opera Carmen (by Bizet) by Chinese singer Grace Chang 葛蘭 and it was recorded sometime in the late 1950s. In Chang's version sung in Mandarin Chinese, she remained faithful to the original operatic setting and the lyrics were not a faithful translation of the original French version, but nonetheless it captured the spirit of the original. Most of all, Chang's version allowed a Mandarin-speaking audience back then to access a piece of music that they would not have otherwise understood, she also brought operatic music to the masses because many of her fans who loved the song back then would only know her version as they were unlikely to have been to the opera in somewhere like Paris or London to have heard the original sung in French. She is a Chinese singer taking a piece of French culture and doing a beautiful interpretation of it, nobody can accuse her of cultural appropriation!
Q: Putting aside the ad campaign, do you believe that D&G's and Stefano Gabbana's personal Instagram accounts were hacked? You know there are thousands of Chinese trolls online who are totally capable of something like that.
A: The irony is that it doesn't matter, it is a moot point - whether or not they were hacked, unless they can produce some kind of irrefutable proof that it was precisely what happened, it is the court of public opinion that is going to judge this. Instagram accounts do get hacked unfortunately but the public can either say, okay it was hacked and he didn't say those nasty racist things about China or they can believe that he did say all those horrible, spiteful, racist things and then chickened out by blaming it on a hacker. And in the case of Stefano Gabbana, oh goodness me - he has behaved very poorly on social media in the past like a petulant teenager, he has gotten into many petty disputes and arguments with celebrities from Miley Cyrus to Kate Moss to Elton John - for example, he said about Selena Gomez, "She's so ugly!!!" (that's right, three exclamation marks) which is the kind of dumb insult we've come to expect from someone as stupid and crass as President Trump but yes, Gabbana has sunk that low too. So regardless of whether or not Gabbana actually did send all those nasty racist messages or not, ironically it doesn't really matter because the court of public opinion has found him guilty based on his past behaviour on social. Mind you, a judge would do exactly the same thing in a court of law - the past behaviour of a suspect would probably give you a very clear indication of whether or not he is capable of committing such a crime. So even if he is innocent in this case, the Chinese people are treating him as if he is totally 100% guilty because it does very much sound like the kind of crass and dumb thing he would say on social media.
After all, you have to look at the timeline of what happened - this wasn't some random hacking of the Instagram accounts (having said that, Instagram accounts get hacked all the time, even mine got hacked earlier this year). Firstly, this happened right after millions of Chinese people were enraged by their racist ad campaign and Gabbana came across as an indignant, stubborn spoilt child who was puzzled as to why the Chinese public were not totally in awe of his genius but instead choosing to condemn his latest ad campaign. One theory to explain this is the "emperor's new clothes" - I am sure you all know the story by Hans Christian Andersen. Well in a company like D&G, there are two emperors, as suggested by the name of the company. Employees working there often kowtow to the emperors who surround themselves by a team of 'yes men', basically a team of people who will agree with the boss, praise the boss and do as they are told even if they know deep down inside that the boss is making a terrible mistake. These people often believe that they will get further in their careers by pleasing their bosses this way; so if this is indeed the case at D&G, then it could be that nobody within the company had the guts to tell their bosses that their China ad campaign was a total catastrophe and that it should be pulled to avoid disaster. So this may explain why Gabbana appeared to be so indignant in defending his ad campaign, especially if all his staff are simply 'yes men' who lavish a lot of praise on him everyday.
Q: What will happen to D&G in China? Are they truly Dead & Gone in the Chinese market then?
A: Well in the short run, they'll lie pretty low and yes they will lose money. But in the long run, people have short memories. Remember how so many people were absolutely outraged when United Airlines dragged a 69 year old doctor David Dao off a plane in April 2017, leaving him with horrific injuries? Sure everyone on social media was outraged and called for a boycott of United Airlines - kinda easy if you don't live in the US and probably would never fly United in any case. If you had to fly between two cities in the US, you would probably look for the cheapest options and chances are United would be up there as they have a comprehensive domestic network in the US. Guess what? They're still in business today, they settled the case with David Dao out of court for an undisclosed sum of money and what happened at Chicago O'Hare airport is now but a distant memory from last year. Unfortunately, crap like that happens on flights all the time and it is not as if it is just United who are capable of really stupid shit like that. Oh it happens on so many outlines and the budget airlines are particularly bad and sadly, the public have become so desensitized to this kind of crap that we are just relieved that we have safely arrived at the destination and not crashed into the sea like Lion Air 610 which crashed shortly after take off from Jakarta airport on 29 October, killing all 189 on board. And remember the whole tragic saga involving flight MH370? Well, guess what? Malaysian Airlines are still in business today despite everything.
But then again, perhaps airlines are not a good comparison in this case: after all, if I have to fly from city A to city B on this particular date, I really don't have that many options. I am going to Malta in December (yes, it's a pre-Christmas break for me) and there aren't that many flights going to Malta - I wanted to fly direct as I didn't fancy turning a 3 hour flight into a 5 to 6 hour journey with a stopover somewhere like Paris, Milan or Geneva. So it was pretty much the availability of the flights on during the times I wished to travel that determined my choice of airlines: I wanted to get there reasonably early on the day I travel to Malta and get the last flight back to London on the day I return to make the most of my last day there - so there wasn't much choice really in the matter since I had already set my criteria that way. But when I stand in front of my wardrobe deciding what I would like to wear today, I will never be in the situation where I find that I simply have to wear the D&G option. Compare this to a fresh graduate needs to go for a job interview and he only has one formal suit to wear for the occasion, then guess what? The suit is likely to be reasonably cheap, it won't be a designer suit from D&G as young people like that won't be able to afford it. In fact, for most of us, it is pretty easy to boycott D&G as their clothes are very expensive! And even if you are the kind of person who would gladly spend $2,000 on a jacket, then there are still plenty of options for you at that luxury end of the market should you decide to avoid D&G.
So the long term prospects of D&G in China really boils down to whether or not they are good at what they are meant to do: designing beautiful clothes. Will they come up with something so unique, so captivating that every fashionista in 2019 or 2020 will want to wear? If they do, then people in China will focus on the trend that is happening before them and forget this fiasco as it fades away in people's memories. After all, D&G have been a very popular designer brand since the late 1980s and they have been going from strength to strength since - it is unlikely that such a major brand would slip into oblivion over something like that. There's really not much they can do at this stage to make amends in China after the grave offence they have caused, so they are probably going to cut their losses and focus their energies on other markets where they are doing well. But here's my prediction, in the short run, they are dead in the Chinese market - then in 2019, another Western brand will make an equally bad faux pas in dealing with the Chinese market in their marketing campaign and there will be someone else to hate. Some people will make comparisons but then the focus will be on this new villain in town, rather than D&G. Public anger will have a new focus and in due course, D&G will be able to slowly regain their position in the Chinese by showing a sincere effort such as engaging local celebrities and advisors when it comes to their PR & marketing campaigns, but this is going to be a very slow process that will take at least a few years.
Q: Are the Italians racist? Answer honestly!
A: Well the short answer is no. Italians are not racist. Here's the long answer: we have to look at the history of Italy compared to other Western countries. There are plenty of black and Asian people in France and the UK because both countries had loads of colonies in Africa and Asia whereas Italy only tried to colonize countries much later than France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal - furthermore, they never successfully held on to those colonies for as long. These ex-colonies were either lost to other European powers or they managed to kick the Italians out for their independence. So in Italy today, there aren't that many ethnic minorities though they have had an influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa in recent years. So the ethnic minorities in Italy tend to be recent arrives rather than second or third generation descendants of migrants who tend to be far better assimilated (as in the case of France and UK). Furthermore, the problem is that the standard of English in Italy is generally quite poor - so many tourists who don't speak Italian have thought that the locals were rude when they refused to speak English; but the fact is many older Italians struggle with English and simply cannot handle a basic conversation in English. Now that's a reflection on their education system and how English is taught there, but it has nothing to do with racism. As an Italian-speaking Asian person, I've only had very good experiences in Italy but that has a lot to do with me not facing a language barrier when I am there and there was only one incident when I put an Italian woman in her place at the Vatican city, oh but she was being a complete cunt - but was she a racist cunt? She was also rude to the locals. Read the story and you be the judge.
Q: Do I own anything by D&G?
A: I do have a D&G tie but that was from years ago. I don't like D&G's look actually, it is way too loud for me. If you were to look at my Instagram, you'll see that like 80-90% of the posts there are me in my various suits and I'm obsessed with formal wear - I have a very distinctive look that I think reflects my identity and D&G's style simply isn't compatible with what I normally go for. In any case, D&G's clothes are hideously expensive and not really that nice (well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and their style just doesn't appeal to me) - so I don't think it is money worth spending. Here's the thing about fashion: just because something is expensive or comes with a designer label doesn't mean that it is nice. I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of money on designer clothes only to look at best somewhat odd, at worst downright garish. There are a few lesser known designers that I adore - take for example I like two Spanish designers: Mario Moreno Moyano and Ramon San Jurjo. Is they well known? Not at all, but that's perhaps the whole appeal of it - they don't even have that many followers on Instagram. Why would I want to spend so much money on something from a famous designer that has already been seen by thousands, even millions on Instagram when I can get something a lot more unique and special which will make people say, "hey that's so unique, where did you get that from?" I suppose it is a question of one's mentality: do you want to conform to fashion trends or do you want to stand out from the crowd and make a statement? Are you content making a point that you're rich enough to afford something very expensive from a posh luxury brand or do you want to create a style that is uniquely your own that you are confident will impress others?
Okay that's it from me on this issue - I could have gone on a lot more but I think it's more important for me now to turn this over to my readers: what do you guys think about this whole D&G fiasco in China? Would you be boycotting D&G now? Is D&G truly dead and gone in China? Will D&G ever recover in China and how long would that take? What lessons can be learnt from this episode for Western companies looking to do business in China? How did you react to D&G's controversial ads? Have people overreacted to it? Leave a comment below please and many thanks for reading.
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