The fashion house insists criticism over the lack of Latino representation in its Mexican-themed ad 'is not at all justified' despite taking down the videos and photos featuring Jennifer Lawrence.
- November 22, 2018
AceShowbiz - Dior has removed photos and videos featuring Jennifer Lawrence from its new ad campaign after it's accused of cultural appropriation. The French fashion house faced backlash for featuring the Oscar-winning actress, a white woman, in the ad for its its Mexican-inspired Cruise 2019 collection.
However, the company insists that their action to take down the ad has nothing to do with the public outcry. A representative for Dior says in a statement, "This has nothing to do with Jennifer and the backlash, which is not at all justified. Also, Dior is working with Mexican photographers and commissioned 8 Mexican women photographers to shoot in Mexico in order to promote the cruise collection as you can see on our Instagram account."
Jennifer, who has been the brand's spokesperson since 2012, was featured modeling Dior's new collection in the now-removed photos. She spoke about the heritage of the collection in an Instagram video, which has also been taken down. "One of the main inspirations for this collection is the traditional women riders of Mexico," she said. "So I'm really excited that this collection is looking at and celebrating these women's heritage through such a modern lens."
The 28-year-old star also talked about the photo shoot, which was located in California. "I can't think of a better landscape to highlight this collection," she said.
People later called out the company for trying to celebrate Mexican heritage by having Jennifer, a white woman, in its ad. Comedian Phoebe Robinson reposted the clip of the actress' interview and captioned it, "Lol. Wut?! Sooooooooo, #Dior & #JenniferLawrence wanna celebrate traditional Mexican women riders thru a 'modern lens'...by having a rich white woman named Jennifer be the face of this campaign? And like they couldn't think of a better landscape to shoot than in California?!"
She continued writing, "Hmm, I dunno, maybe...like...shoot...in...Mexico...with...a...Mexican...actress like Salma Hayek, Karla Souza, Jessica Alba, Selena Gomez, Eva Longoria, or many others. But I guess they were all unavailable, so you had to go with Jennifer Lawrence. The audacity to call this s**t modern because it's worn by a white woman is ignorant and gross, but unfortunately, not surprising."
Another wrote on Twitter, "In the latest installment of white women and dusty a** fashion houses making poor choices: Dior's new collection was inspired by Mexican riders so they got Jennifer Lawrence as the model because of course they did."
"The @Dior campaign with Jennifer Lawrence is a great example of how idiotic marketing teams can turn great social movements into bad marketing," read another comment. Someone else added, "Get a Mexican model. This is so far off the mark it's crazy and I can't believe more people aren't discussing it. This is Pepsi bad."
Dior is still promoting the Cruise collection with photos and videos featuring Mexican women on its Instagram account.
