I’ve been trying to keep up with all of the news, fashion and photos coming out of all the film festivals happening these days. Venice is over, they just had their closing ceremony over the weekend. Toronto is still happening, and I think Deauville still is. There are a lot of headlines and photos from all of the festivals, but I made a choice to not cover these pics of Johnny Depp before now. He turned up to the Venice Film Festival on the final days to promote Waiting for the Barbarians. Then he went to Deauville to shill for the same movie. Personally, I don’t think Depp looks well in any of these photos. He’s not as thin and cracked-out looking as last year, but he still seems… physically fragile.
Anyway, before these Depp appearances, the big conversation last week was how in the world Dior greenlighted such blatantly racist commercials for their Sauvage cologne, commercials which star Johnny Depp. Dior’s latest Sauvage campaign featured Native Americans… for a cologne called “savage” in French. Bad. Terrible. But according to Johnny Depp, the whole thing was a big misunderstanding.
Johnny Depp defended his latest Dior campaign, Sauvage, which was pulled Aug. 30 after being considered offensive to Native Americans. Depp said the teaser released was just a clip and did not reflect the depth of the full project, titled We Are the Land. “A teaser obviously is a very concentrated version of images and there were objections to the teaser of the small film. The film has never been seen,” he said.
“There was never — and how could there be or how would there be — any dishonorable [intent]. The film was made with a great respect for the indigenous people not just of North America but all over the world. It’s a pity that people jumped the gun and made these objections. However, their objections are their objections,” he said, adding that they were working with those offended to come to a resolution.
Depp said that there has been no final decision to pull the ad and the creative teams plan to meet and work with those who were offended by the clip to come to a resolution. He noted the creative team had worked with the Comanche Nation and other indigenous advocacy organizations during the creation of the film.
“I can assure you that no one has any reason to go out to try to exploit. It was a film made out of great respect and with great respect and love for the Native American peoples to bring light to them. They haven’t had the greatest amount of help out of the United States government,” he said. “The idea is as pure as it ever was, so we will come to an agreement so that everyone is happy.”
There is only one thing I’ll say in defense of Depp in particular: I do not believe that he, personally, set out to offend Native Americans with the Dior campaign at all. I think he probably had a hand in bringing in Native American consultants too. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was ALWAYS going to be a bad idea to make an ad featuring Native Americans (as props/texture/virtue signaling) for a COLOGNE AD. For a cologne called SAUVAGE. There was no need to overthink it. Simply THINK about it and go with your first thought: oh, right, we shouldn’t do this. This will look bad.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.
If your idea involves having to bring in cultural consultants to make sure you don’t offend, it’s a bad idea.
THIS.
In French literature there is the “Mythe du bon sauvage” by Rousseau where the indigenous peoples are idealised as these angelic creatures in touch with Mother Earth. It was taught as being this benevolent disposition towards the natives of invaded countries and an inherent critique of European civilisation.
So, before I knew any better, for me the “sauvage” was a good, better knowing, wise person because I associated it with Rousseau. Then I learned a lot of knew things and read many other things as an adult and reviewed my knowledge of the word and now never use it because it really just awakens a sense of dread. Particularly if there is even the remote possibility of associating it with any indigenous person of any geographic area.
Depp didn’t even study in a French school so he has no excuse.
Thank you for your insight.
Yup! Why go there?
The “consultants” were the exact same group that he paid to help him avoid the bad press for the Native American imagery used in The Lone Ranger.
Dude…if you have a reoccurring issue where you keep offending people with your exploitation of Native Americans, maybe don’t double down and keep going at it. He should have expected the outrage, he’s been in this same exact position before.
His silence was better. A cologne named Sauvage with images of Native Americans??!!?? C’mon…
Indigenous person here. F*** Johnny Depp.
All of his ‘homages’ to native North Americans are deeply offensive.
As for his claim that the film wasn’t made to exploit. F. him!!! What the hell else are you doing when marketing overpriced mens perfume. It’s sure not talking about reparations, channeling money in righting systemic abuse or working to tell the actual history of native North Americans. It’s selling elitist items and perpetrating stereo types for cold hard cash.
Hey Johnny Dippshit, You don’t represent us. We don’t want you. Please go drink yourself to death on $ 30,000 bottles of wine and then shoot your cremated remains into oblivion. Choke on your hubris!!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Love it!
Well said, Krakken!!!!
I think the name of the cologne juxtaposed with the imagery is what offends me the most. If the cologne was named something else like “beautiful” or something else, maybe it might work. But that name has historical significance to the Native Americans – and not in a good way. How did they not know that?
He’s not listening. No one asked about intent. It may not have been intentional but when someone tells you something is racist, the chances are high that it actually is, and you need to accept that and own up to it.
But if these indigenous people agreed to act in and be paid for this ad, who are the rest of us to say anything? And why can’t they be in a cologne ad? Who decides what cultures can act in what ads?
I can see an issue if white actors are portraying indigenous people, but is it fair to attack this ad when these people decided to be in it themselves? I think the woman and man dancing were gorgeous.
Now are companies going to refuse to hire Indians, Native Americans, Asian’s, etc to be in their ads for fear of offending someone? Or is it ok if the product is a cure for cancer, but not a pair of shoes?
Political correctness has gone too far. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.
So by your logic, because Ben Carson and Omorosa worked for Donald Trump, who are any African-Americans to say he’s racist? Why can’t they work for him? They got paid so that settles it. Trump’s not racist and political correctness has gone too far.
He’s such a POS Hollywood and everyone else needs to let him go.
I am so ashamed but I don’t understand why it’s offensive.
I’m too ignorant and probably too dumb and privileged to understand. Can someone please explain so I can learn and not continue to live under a rock?
I tried to do a thought experiment replacing the native americans with the natives where I live, and while I can see it being cringey, I can’t seem to wrap my head around it being offensive. Maybe it’s because english is not my mother tongue and the word savage mostly are used in positive connotations where I come from?
The ad is really poorly executed and edited, I might say. But why was it wrong to use native americans in it? Because they used someone’s culture to sell a product primarily sold to white middle-age men?
Someone please educate me? I’m so ashamed of myself for being this ignorant..
Savannah, I think if you read the earlier comments in this thread, you’ll gain more understanding. ‘Savage’ has historical connotations with respect to Native Americans, it was always used in a derogatory manner.
@BEANIEBEAN @DOTWOOD
Thank you so much for taking your time to explain this to me! That’s very kind of you.
I’ve learned something and definitely see it now. Thank you!!
@Savannah
I’m not First Nations, but I can tell you even as a middle class white person, this ad made me feel icky. It’s not just about having First Nations featured in an ad to profit off their cultures for some elitist designer perfume. But also the cologne is called savage. That’s a harshly negative racial slur towards any indigenous populations. The term insinuates that they are uncultured and brutal. It was used as a way to villify them when white people were colonizing the Americas; to make them an enemy that has to be erased from n the land so white people could bring culture and civilization to it. It’s really just beyond me that Dior okayed this ad and no one saw the blatant racism behind it along the way. I hope that helps explain it a bit. Again, I’m not First Nations and I’m not speaking on their behalf. I’m just telling you what I thought of when I saw they used indigenous cultures with that word.
“There was never — and how could there be or how would there be — any dishonorable [intent].”
The.
name.
of.
the.
product.
is.
SAUVAGE
How much more dishonorable does that get????
How about this, Johnny? Imagine the images being of African tribesmen. Pretty damn offensive for a product named “SAVAGE”, right?
Better yet, son, just stop talking.
This. ‘Savage’ is an ‘other’-ing term. It divides/discriminates between the ‘civilized’ colonizers and the ‘uncultured’ indigenous population. It’s been that way since the roman times and their barbarians; it’s a way to say that they’re different, lesser.
Hailing from one of those former exploited colonies.
Just go away, Johnny, my 21 jumpstreet crush have long since expired.