Get a real tiger in the year of the tiger, but thank you for the effort?
The Italian brand Gucci has shot a series of promotional videos and photos for the "Gucci Tiger" series on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar Year of the Tiger.
It is said that he originally wanted to attract a wave of customers with the theme of the zodiac, but it caused controversy because of the real tiger that appeared in the commercial.
Gucci announced that to welcome the Year of the Tiger, the brand's creative director Alessandro Michele has designed a new "Gucci Tiger" collection (known in China as the "Chinese New Year Collection"), featuring a tiger pattern, accompanied by natural flowers and plants. pattern.
Gucci released a series of promotional posters and videos of people and tigers in the same frame, and said that all the real tigers appeared in the advertisements.
In one of the ads, the models were enjoying afternoon tea in the house, and a larger tiger shuttled through it and jumped on the dining table to interact with people.
Seemingly predicting that it would be questioned, Gucci put "survival desire" on the screen when it released every advertisement, and copied and pasted a statement "Gucci cares about nature and wildlife", saying that the brand added animals in February 2020 The Lion's Share, a conservation foundation that raises money to protect endangered species and their natural habitats.
Gucci also said that American Humane, a third-party animal welfare organization, oversaw the entire process of filming the ad to ensure no animals were harmed, adding that the tigers were filmed in a separate, safe environment before appearing in the ad through post-production.
However, this explanation did not convince everyone, and some people questioned that "tigers are not pets", and tigers should not be used as "props".
On January 14, the international non-profit animal protection organization "World Society for the Protection of Animals" posted on social media criticizing Gucci's Year of the Tiger advertisement, saying that the Year of the Tiger should make people aware of the need to respect and protect these animals, instead of putting them "" commoditization".
The group urged Gucci to stop "glorifying captive wildlife" in ads.
In addition, the group believes that the ad, shot by Gucci, sends the wrong message, depicting wild animals that should belong to nature as "pets" and "luxury goods."
On January 16, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation stated that it strongly protested Gucci's use of tigers to shoot commercials for the 2022 Year of the Tiger: "Globally, due to human overuse and habitat loss, tigers are rapidly growing. Going to extinction. We have no objection to photographing wild animals in natural landscapes under the premise of animal ethics. But such performance-based commercial performances and advertisements are unacceptable. Gucci's use of tigers for commercial purposes violates It is equivalent to encouraging the illegal hunting and trade of endangered animals in disguise.”
Regarding the use of real tigers in the advertisement, many netizens ridiculed: "Looking forward to the Year of the Dragon." Many Chinese netizens said that although the advertisement was designed to cater to the Chinese Year of the Tiger, they did not feel the Chinese zodiac culture in the advertisement.
Tiger, the king of beasts.
In nature, tigers belong to the class Mammalia, cats, and are at the top of the food chain in the ecosystem, and have important ecological and scientific value.
Tiger culture is an extremely important part of Chinese cultural tradition, and it has long been regarded as a symbol of power and strength, and is revered by people.
In people's eyes, in addition to its biological attributes, the tiger is also endowed with spiritual sustenance and transformed into a divine beast. In ancient times, it was called a mountain king or a holy beast.
At present, the Chinese people have their own aesthetic pursuits for raising Qi in the Year of the Tiger and bringing spirit and energy to the year.
There are a lot of creative ideas in the Year of the Tiger and tiger-themed advertisements, but you still have to be careful about the hot spots, "tiger's butt" can't be touched casually.
Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Zhang Nan