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Dolce and Gabbana accused of racism in Chinese ad, issues apology

Popular Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana Friday in a short video officially apologized for the recent controversy in which its ads were considered as hurting the sentiments of the Chinese people. The founder of the brand, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana spoke in the video, which was posted on the company’s official Sina Weibo account regarding the recent outrage over a series of ads that were termed ‘racist’ by individuals and celebrities on social media in the country.

The ads showed a Chinese woman struggling to eat spaghetti and pizza with chopsticks. Following the controversy that erupted, news agency Reuters posted screenshots of a private Instagram conversation, in which the brand’s designer Stefano Gabbana makes a reference to “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia” and uses the smiling poo emoji to describe the country.

D&B later said that Gabbana’s account had been hacked, but in the following days, its goods were taken off from the shelves of Chinese ecommerce platforms.

“China has always been friendly to foreign businesses. But it doesn’t mean there’s no bottom line,” the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper had wrote on Weibo on Wednesday.

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