How brands try creative campaigns but sometimes fail to deliver the message : case of Dior

No advertisement can beat a perfume brand in the race for originality. Making a fragrance meaningful to consumers requires the creation of an entire universe: failing to be able to translate the olfactory meaning - which is the only one concerned by a perfume - how to express this fragrance through a video or an image? Beyond activating the visual and auditory senses, it stimulates the consumer's imagination to imagine such a tactile and taste experience to overcome the 2D barrier.

The trouble with these made-up universes is that the message is often too absurd to be understood or seen as such.

As such, one of the most fragile examples was the resounding failure of the advertising campaign of the French group Dior, for the launch of its "Sauvage" Eau de parfum, with the muse Johnny Depp.

Initially, the campaign should represent the image of a freedman, rejecting social conventions for a freer world, deserted (of constraints), the exoticism of travel, the unattainable at hand and still a road trip in wild nature.

Johnny Depp, an icon of world-renowned cinema and claiming as much as possible his attachment to Amerindian cultures, should have been the ideal booster to help this new product gain visibility.

Visibility was there, but not precisely for the right reasons. As soon as the campaign appeared, Internet users rushed in indignation to cry out for the vestige of colonialism and the appropriation of Native American cultures.

Foreign: that is to say, at best, not concerned at all by the subject, at worst coming from a formerly colonialist country. Therefore, an advertisement that should inspire dreams, disorient the average consumer and offer him a trip to unusual regions, was thus very poorly received. Instead, it gave the impression that we were replaying Christopher Columbus by depicting elements of Native American cultures, centred around a white man who was not Native American, moreover for the profit of a brand.

The brand may have defended the core message of its campaign, and Jhonny Depp to justify himself as a Native American ancestor and his adoption by the Comanche nation

- after having played an American Indian in a television series - the result remained the same: a lousy buzz on social networks, which forced them to remove everything. The Parisian HQ of Dior did not give too much thought to the sensitivity of the debate in North America when they chose this universe for their product "Sauvage", intended for an international sale.

Ultimately, through this ad, Dior only succeeded in portraying Westerners' fascination with secular cultures in distress, fading - and this very ironically - because of themselves and their historical actions. Like the polar bear that we admire at the zoo because we have done so well to destroy its habitat that it has become an endangered specimen, we understand that the Amerindians may cringe at the idea that their scarcity makes all their interest their charm in the eyes of multinational firms.

Dior is far from the only brand to be guilty of cultural appropriation, which is commonplace among large groups: we think particularly of the Schweppes advertising, featuring festivities in India, with Nicole Kidman as the star muse. Once again, we find a Caucasian star in the spotlight, having nothing to do with the cultural society of which she is supposed to embody the essence.

Yes, but here it is. Should we only sell "the French art of living" when our name is Dior and refrain from any creative deviation?

Finally, these advertisements are a bit of a reflection of reality: the consumer will buy the perfume that will give him the impression of being exotic and unique, when he is anything but that: he will buy a product of mass consumption, with a generic scent created to appeal to as many people as possible and to be purchased accordingly.

Ayush Kesari

16/11/2021

Presentation by Flore Brault

References:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/30/dior-sauvage-perfume-ad-campaign-criticized-for-use-of-native-american-culture.html

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/dior-pulls-sauvage-campaign-from-instagram-after-facing-appropriation-backlash

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-autochtones/1281916/dior-scandale-parfum-johnny-depp-sauvage-autochtone

Images:

A scene from the Dior Sauvage campaign that uses Native American culture. | Courtesy

Johnny Depp stars in Dior's new Savauge ad. | Courtesy

A photo from Dior’s Instagram page. Megan Graham