Marni apologizes for controversial ‘Jungle Mood’ campaign

Marni is the latest fashion brand to take heat for an offensive campaign.

This week, the Italian luxury brand posted images of its new Jungle Mood campaign which featured an image of a black man with a purse superimposed over him, and what appeared to be shackles on his feet. Another image showed a sandal being held up with the caption “Tribal amulet.” Fashion watchdog Diet Prada picked up on the campaign, posting, “The images begin alluding to racist, colonial stereotypes of black people as primitive, uncivilized and unmodern people.”

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Marni has since removed the images and issued a public apology, stating, “We are deeply apologetic for the harm and offense . . . What was intended to be a campaign that celebrated the beauty of the Afro-Brazilian culture through the perspective of Brazilian photographer Edgard Azevedo came to fruition having had the opposite impact. Our oversights across the review process are unacceptable — and for that, we are incredibly sorry.”

In 2019, Gucci apologized after releasing a balaclava that evoked black face and Burberry apologized for making a hoodie with a noose.