On the occasion of the Lunar Year of the Tiger in China, Italian brand Gucci took the "Gucci Tiger" series of promotional videos and photos. Originally wanted to rely on the zodiac theme to attract a wave of customers, but because of the real tigers that appeared in the advertising film, it caused controversy.
Gucci shoots commercials with real tigers
Earlier this month, Gucci announced that in preparation for the Year of the Tiger, the brand's creative director, Alexandra Mikari, has designed a new "Gucci Tiger" series (known in China as the "Chinese New Year Series") featuring tiger patterns with natural patterns such as flowers and plants.
Gucci released a series of promotional posters and videos in the same frame as tigers, and said that the real tigers appeared in the ads.
In one of the ads, models enjoy afternoon tea in the house, and a larger tiger shuttles through it and jumps on the table to interact with people.
Seemingly anticipating questionability, Gucci slapped "survival" on the screen with every ad, copying and pasting a statement that read "Gucci cares about nature and wildlife," saying the brand joined Animal Conservation Foundation The Lion's Share in February 2020, which aims to raise funds to protect endangered species and their natural habitats.
Gucci also said that when the advertisement was filmed, american Humane, a third-party animal welfare organization, monitored the whole process to ensure that no animals were harmed, and said that the tigers were filmed in a separate, safe environment and finally appeared in the advertisement through post-production.
However, such an explanation did not convince everyone, and some people questioned that "tigers are not pets" and should not be used as "props".
On Jan. 14, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, an international nonprofit organization, posted on social media criticizing Gucci's Year of the Tiger ad, saying that the Year of the Tiger should make people aware of the need to respect and protect these animals, not to "commercialize" them. The group urged Gucci to stop "glorifying captive wildlife" in its ads.
In addition, the group argues that The ad gucci shot conveys the wrong message, portraying wildlife that is supposed to be natural as a "pet" and a "luxury."
On January 16, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation said it strongly protested Gucci's use of tigers for commercials for the Year of the Tiger 2022: "Globally, tigers are rapidly heading for extinction due to human overuse and habitat loss. We are not opposed to photographing wild animals in natural landscapes in accordance with animal ethics. However, this kind of performance-type commercial performance and advertising is unacceptable. Gucci's use of tigers for commercial use goes against business ethics and amounts to a disguised encouragement of illegal hunting and trade in endangered animals. ”
For the use of real tigers in advertisements, many netizens joked: "Looking forward to the Year of the Dragon." Many Chinese netizens said that although this advertisement is to cater to the Chinese Year of the Tiger, they do not feel the Chinese zodiac culture in the advertisement at all. Tiger, king of the hundred beasts. In nature, tigers belong to the mammalian family, cats, at the top of the food chain in the ecosystem, and have important ecological and scientific value.
Gucci's sales in Asia fell 3% in the third quarter of last year
Gucci is a cash cow of Kering, a well-known luxury goods company, accounted for 52.1% of the total revenue in the quarter in its latest third-quarter earnings report. But Kering is not "happy" that Gucci is the only one, after all, it also has a number of well-known brands such as Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Bao Dijia, Alexander McQueen and so on. If it wants to close the gap with LVMH, the group needs to have more "Gucci".
GUCCI product poster Image source: GUCCI official website
However, from the actual financial report, Gucci is still the group's traffic king and performance manager. In the case of Saint Laurent, the second-placer, its revenue in the third quarter was 653 million euros, although the year-on-year growth rate reached 27.8%, but the revenue was less than one-third of GUCCI.70%.
According to Kering's third quarter 2021 financial report, Gucci's total revenue for the third quarter, which accounted for more than half of the group's revenue, was 2,181.8 million euros, an increase of 4.5% year-on-year at real exchange rates, but still not the 9.1% increase expected by analysts. At the same time, the total revenue of "Other Brands" was 843.7 million euros, an increase of 26.1% year-on-year at real exchange rates, mainly due to the continuous expansion of the two major brands, Balenciaga and McQueen.
Gucci, a brand that accounts for more than half of the group's sales, seems to have lost its vitality after years of strong growth and is becoming the main focus of market attention.
The resurgence of the outbreak in Asia, a 41% key market, was cited as the main reason for Gucci's slowdown, which led to the cancellation of retail campaigns and marketing plans in the final chapter of the Endless Overture series, and Gucci's sales in Asia fell 3% in the third quarter of last year.
Source: Life Newspaper Comprehensive Qianjiang Evening News, Yangtze Evening News, Per Jing App, etc