Cultural Appropriation is not the Same as Racist Branding

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There are different kinds of racially offensive branding that may appear to be “cultural appropriation,” but these are two different things. For example, in the fall of 2019, the luxury French fashion brand, Christian Dior, found itself in the middle of controversy relating to the use of Native American culture to promote the “Sauvage” perfume. The advertisement was  a one-minute film, titled, “We are the Land,” that featured actor Johnny Depp. In the advertisement a Native man, dressed in full regalia appears to be doing a traditional Native American dance, while Depp plays the guitar and gazes at the landscape. A voiceover at the end asserts, “we are the land.” The problem, which seems to have been overlooked by the Dior marketing team, was that the perfume name, “sauvage” translates from French to English as “savage.” It is no surprise that this advertisement generated backlash, and Dior eventually pulled it. 

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