Monday, August 24, 2020

Cartier Straight-Washes Ad Campaign


Cartier is being accused of straight-washing a Chinese ad.

In a new campaign for its classic Trinity ring you see several of people, like a man and woman dancing on a rooftop, two women holding hands, and two men bicycling and embracing one another. The advertisement ends with a question: "How far would you go for love?"

The ad clearly shows a straight couple, a lesbian couple and a gay couple, but shoppers at Tmall—China's premiere digital shopping marketplace—say that the same-sex couples in the video are also featured as still-image ads … with captions claiming their relationships are strictly platonic. 

Under the image of two women it says:
"Mutual understanding beyond words. Witness our everlasting friendship."
Under the two men it reads:
"Father and son are also friends—happily sharing life's journey."
When users pointed out that the two men seemed quite close in age, the text was altered:
"Father and son are like brothers."
Wait, so women who are “just friends” buy matching rings? And fathers and sons buy matching bands, too. C’mon Cartier. The Trinity band, designed in 1924, is actually three bands that symbolize different aspects of a relationship, but is often used as a wedding ring and almost always associated with lovers.

In a statement responding to the confusion, Cartier stood by the gifting of the ring, which can retail over $3,000, for friendship and "family love."

Nice try. We know that same-sex relationships in China are not illegal but remain culturally taboo, and censorship of LGBTQ-inclusive media, such as the queer kiss scenes in Bohemian Rhapsody, is common, but then maybe don’t air your clearly meant to be gay men and women ads in China. Shell out some extra coins for a new, straights only campaign.

Don’t erase gay people. It’s demeaning, degrading and just plain wrong.

7 comments:

  1. So not good.
    Take care, xoxo :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You mean to tell me when I was in a thruple, we could have had this three banded Trinity ring?!?!?!

    Well, not from stuffy Cartier anyhow. There stuffy bitches. I'd go to Tiffany's before. And look.

    ReplyDelete
  3. FUCK YOU CARTIER AND CHINA! gay people have always been among us; fuck you for trying to pretend they don't exist!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Best of all Cartier don't advertise in China at all; in fact don't advertise in any repressive country if you really support LGBT

    ReplyDelete
  5. So many other ways they could have gone to advertise in China and not offend us all... like simply make new commercials that don't include us. Offensive and disappointing, yes, but not as offensive (and downright ignorant and insulting to our intelligence) as what they did. No problem though, I can't remember the last time I bought anything from Cartier. Jerks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ex-husband number two bought me one of these Trinity rings for our tenth Christmas together. I feigned excitement. Poor guy, I could tell that I was working up the gumption to leave him. The ship had sailed, the plane had left the gate, the train was picking up speed. It wasn't sized right, so every time I flicked wrist, threw a ball for the dog to catch, the damned ring went flying off my freaking finger. When we broke up, there was no delay in that coming up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What kind of fuckery?
    Hold my earrings!

    XoXo

    ReplyDelete

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