20 Ads That Insulted Their Own Audience

Pizza, spaghetti, and a cannolo were placed in front of a Chinese model wearing an elegant red dress. She then tried to eat the Italian dishes with chopsticks while a male narrator offered instructions in an exaggerated, teasing tone. Dolce & Gabbana intended the videos to promote a major Shanghai fashion event by mixing Italian and Chinese culture. Many Chinese viewers found the model’s portrayal patronizing instead, as if she were being presented as naïve for not knowing how to eat Western food. The campaign unraveled further when offensive messages attributed to Stefano Gabbana’s Instagram account appeared online; the designer and company said the account had been hacked.