• Subscribe to our newsletter
The Media Online
  • Home
  • MOST Awards
  • News
    • Awards
    • Media Mecca
  • Print
    • Newspapers
    • Magazines
    • Publishing
  • Broadcasting
    • TV
    • Radio
    • Cinema
    • Video
  • Digital
    • Mobile
    • Online
  • Agencies
    • Advertising
    • Media agency
    • Public Relations
  • OOH
    • Events
  • Research & Education
    • Research
    • Media Education
      • Media Mentor
  • Press Office
    • Press Office
    • TMO.Live Blog
    • Events
    • Jobs
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • MOST Awards
  • News
    • Awards
    • Media Mecca
  • Print
    • Newspapers
    • Magazines
    • Publishing
  • Broadcasting
    • TV
    • Radio
    • Cinema
    • Video
  • Digital
    • Mobile
    • Online
  • Agencies
    • Advertising
    • Media agency
    • Public Relations
  • OOH
    • Events
  • Research & Education
    • Research
    • Media Education
      • Media Mentor
  • Press Office
    • Press Office
    • TMO.Live Blog
    • Events
    • Jobs
No Result
View All Result
The Media Online
No Result
View All Result
Home Advertising

Johnny Depp: row over Dior ad and Native American culture is more nuanced than you think

by Joy Porter
September 9, 2019
in Advertising
0 0
0
Johnny Depp: row over Dior ad and Native American culture is more nuanced than you think

Photo: Johnny-Depp.org

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The social media reaction to Johnny Depp’s controversial new video for Dior’s ‘Sauvage’ perfume was intense. So intense, in fact, that Dior took the ad down from its Instagram feed within a few hours of posting it.

Critics said the video, which featured the US actor walking amid the red rocks of Southwestern Utah while a Sioux warrior performs a ‘Fancy Dance’ (a war dance), was “deeply offensive and racist”.

Many pointed out a connection between the perfume name and the French name of the fragrance line, which translates as ‘savage’ in English. Two minutes viewing the advert below will explain the furore.

The advert ticks off a whole list of triggers:

  1. Native Americans apparently portrayed stereotypically? Check.
  2. A rich Hollywood movie star in the lead role, whose Native American ethnicity is debated and who therefore could be accused of cultural appropriation? Check.
  3. A much younger Native American woman in the background as Depp’s potential love interest, with all the gendered power relations that suggests? Check.
  4. A brand name suggestive of a racial slur with connotations that are long and ugly? Check.
  5. An American minority who have experienced dispossession and systemic historic disadvantage juxtaposed with a luxury good that disproportionately few of them are in a position to afford? Check.

Viewed from this perspective, the advert is a dog-whistle call to the social media universe. It was designed to encourage people who either loved or hated it to engage – and, at the same time, push it out to their friends. So, on both sides of the argument, they become complicit in sharing it.

Cultural conflict

Depp’s co-star, playing a woman named in the ad simply as ‘the maiden’, is Tanaya Beatty, an Da’naxda’xw actress from Canada. She recently described Dior in an interview with Variety as having been “misguided” in relation to the short film for Sauvage.

She said that she was hesitant to take on the role and felt conflicted during filming, “witnessing as a company blatantly disrespected indigenous culture”. She pledged to make a donation to an “inter-tribal non-profit” and encouraged Depp and Dior to do the same.

The advertisement, directed by the French music director Jean-Baptiste Mondino brings together a number of tribal traditions and signifiers.

It shows Depp playing a guitar riff, made famous by Shawnee guitarist Link Wray, against the backdrop of the Arches National Monument in Utah, the ancestral lands of the Apache, Navajo and Ute. Meanwhile, dancer Canku Thomas One Star of the Rose Bud Sioux tribe of South Dakota dances the Fancy Dance.

Getting people talking

At a time when the world is facing unprecedented ecological, political and economic problems linked to unchecked growth, the argument over the Sauvage advert presents an intriguing example of how capitalism works in the social media age. It speaks to a new sort of politics at play, where the public is strongly encouraged to be politically active in relation to their consumer choices.

This is activism within a public sphere, involving no direct participation in democratic institutions. The advertisement fuels the urge to take an online stand. By doing so, commentators may also be providing advertisers with further information about their profile as consumers.

Dior may have pulled the ad, but even this has added to its notoriety. Meanwhile, many took to Twitter to defend Depp and the perfumier.

 Respecting heritage

Dior has provided plenty of information to allow the debate to continue. Those inclined to view it positively would be pleased to learn that the advert had been made in collaboration with the respected, non-profit known as Americans for Indian Opportunity “in order to respect indigenous cultures, values and heritage”.

AIO, which is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was founded by the respected Comanche leader and activist, LaDonna Harris and is now run by her daughter, Laura. LaDonna Harris is a different sort of Indian activist than most of the world is familiar with. A savvy, poised cultural broker who was the first Native American woman to run for vice-president of the US, her political and social skills and her proximity to power as the wife of Democratic senator Fred R Harris allowed her to achieve exceptional things for Native Americans and for the environment.

Johnny Depp with LaDonna Harris at the Comanche Fair in Oklahoma, 2013.
Cathy Horacek via Pinterest

Working with Nixon aide ‘Bobbie’ Kilberg and with White House staffer Brad Patterson – special assistant for Native American Programmes under Nixon and his successor Gerald Ford – her efforts and those of her husband helped the Taos Pueblo Indians achieve restoration of the sacred Taos Blue Lake, high in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Aside from helping to achieve the first return of Indian land from the Federal government, Harris served on a host of federal committees from 1967 and testified at a series of pivotal congressional hearings. She also facilitated the adoption of Johnny Depp into the Comanche Nation in 2013, shortly before he played Tonto in the 2013 film of The Lone Ranger (for which he was widely criticised at the time).

Overall, the story behind this Twitter furore is complex. It brings to the fore the diversity of today’s Native America and the larger issue of how difficult it is to fully understand and productively comment upon the advertising we see.The Conversation


Joy Porter, Professor of Indigenous History, University of Hull

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


 

Tags: advertisingConsumerconsumer activismcultural appropriationDiorgender stereotypeInstagramJohnny Deppluxurysocial mediaTanaya BeattyTwitter

Joy Porter

Professor Porter is an interdisciplinary researcher and teacher of Native American Indian history in relation to war, modernity, literature and the environment. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the University Cluster Treatied Spaces: Environment & Peoples in America, 1607-1890. Her work has benefited from awards from the Fulbright Commission, AHRC, British Academy and Leverhulme Trust. Professor Porter was appointed to the AHRC Strategic Review College, 2016-2020, and reviews for the Leverhulme Trust, Fulbright Commission and Higher Education Academy.

Follow Us

  • twitter
  • threads
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Kelders van Geheime: The characters are here

Kelders van Geheime: The characters are here

March 22, 2024
Dissecting the LSM 7-10 market

Dissecting the LSM 7-10 market

May 17, 2023
Keri Miller sets the record straight after being axed from ECR

Keri Miller sets the record straight after being axed from ECR

April 23, 2023
Getting to know the ES SEMs 8-10 (Part 1)

Getting to know the ES SEMs 8-10 (Part 1)

February 22, 2018
Sowetan proves that sex still sells

Sowetan proves that sex still sells

105
It’s black. It’s beautiful. It’s ours.

Exclusive: Haffajee draws a line in the sand over racism

98
The Property Magazine and Media Nova go supernova

The Property Magazine and Media Nova go supernova

44
Warrant of arrest authorised for Media Nova’s Vaughan

Warrant of arrest authorised for Media Nova’s Vaughan

41
AI in sponsorship: Beyond the buzzword

AI in sponsorship: Beyond the buzzword

May 9, 2025
Upping the ante: Tracking the year-on-year growth of gambling in SA

Upping the ante: Tracking the year-on-year growth of gambling in SA

May 9, 2025
Seven Days on Social Media: Tonya’s in hospital, the nation’s in chaos and SA doesn’t care about Joshlin

Seven Days on Social Media: Tonya’s in hospital, the nation’s in chaos and SA doesn’t care about Joshlin

May 9, 2025
Social media platforms are replacing Google

Social media platforms are replacing Google

May 8, 2025

Recent News

AI in sponsorship: Beyond the buzzword

AI in sponsorship: Beyond the buzzword

May 9, 2025
Upping the ante: Tracking the year-on-year growth of gambling in SA

Upping the ante: Tracking the year-on-year growth of gambling in SA

May 9, 2025
Seven Days on Social Media: Tonya’s in hospital, the nation’s in chaos and SA doesn’t care about Joshlin

Seven Days on Social Media: Tonya’s in hospital, the nation’s in chaos and SA doesn’t care about Joshlin

May 9, 2025
Social media platforms are replacing Google

Social media platforms are replacing Google

May 8, 2025

ABOUT US

The Media Online is the definitive online point of reference for South Africa’s media industry offering relevant, focused and topical news on the media sector. We deliver up-to-date industry insights, guest columns, case studies, content from local and global contributors, news, views and interviews on a daily basis as well as providing an online home for The Media magazine’s content, which is posted on a monthly basis.

Follow Us

  • twitter
  • threads

ARENA HOLDING

Editor: Glenda Nevill
glenda.nevill@cybersmart.co.za
Sales and Advertising:
Tarin-Lee Watts
wattst@arena.africa
Download our rate card

OUR NETWORK

TimesLIVE
Sunday Times
SowetanLIVE
BusinessLIVE
Business Day
Financial Mail
HeraldLIVE
DispatchLIVE
Wanted Online
SA Home Owner
Business Media MAGS
Arena Events

NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION

 
Subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

Copyright © 2015 - 2023 The Media Online. All rights reserved. Part of Arena Holdings (Pty) Ltd

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • MOST Awards
  • News
    • Awards
    • Media Mecca
  • Print
    • Newspapers
    • Magazines
    • Publishing
  • Broadcasting
    • TV
    • Radio
    • Cinema
    • Video
  • Digital
    • Mobile
    • Online
  • Agencies
    • Advertising
    • Media agency
    • Public Relations
  • OOH
    • Events
  • Research & Education
    • Research
    • Media Education
      • Media Mentor
  • Press Office
    • Press Office
    • TMO.Live Blog
    • Events
    • Jobs

Copyright © 2015 - 2023 The Media Online. All rights reserved. Part of Arena Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?