Zara clothing brand sparks controversy by portraying Gaza destruction in new advertising campaign. Spanish fashion retailer Zara is currently facing a substantial public backlash over its recent advertising campaign, “The Jacket,” part of the brand’s Atelier series.
The campaign, showcased on Zara’s social media platforms, features images of statues with missing limbs amid the rubble, leading many social media users to interpret the scenes as drawing an inappropriate parallel to the destruction in Gaza.
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Photographed by Tim Walker and directed by French-American company Baron & Baron, the campaign stars American model Kristen McMenamy, donning various jackets in a melancholic white room surrounded by wooden crates and concrete rubble, with a cardboard cutout resembling an inverted map of Palestine.
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Certain images, including one where McMenamy holds a plastic-wrapped mannequin while wearing a studded leather jacket, have reportedly been removed from the Zara website.
Criticism has mounted on social media, with users suggesting that the campaign appears to exploit the suffering of Palestinians.
The unsettling imagery of statues with missing limbs and mannequins draped in white cloth has drawn comparisons to Islamic burial attire, known as the ‘kafan.’
Despite the controversy, Zara has not issued a response to the public backlash as of yet. Established in Spain in 1975, Zara has over 2,000 outlets across more than 90 countries, including multiple stores in the UAE.
As Zara clothing brand sparks controversy by portraying Gaza destruction in new advertising campaign, look at the public reaction:
how disgusting the world we live in,
how disgusting humans are when there is no humanity. #BoycottZara pic.twitter.com/u4F10hF5No— نور 🇵🇸 (@noor_a25) December 9, 2023
The Atelier series, as described by Zara, aims to showcase the brand’s creative and manufacturing prowess by presenting one garment in six different ways.
You are now exposed to the whole world. There are no words to express how despicable you are. I think even the devil is amazed of your actions !
Palistine will be free and you will be in the trash of the history.
Humanity wins, you already lost !#مقاطعه_زارا#ولعت#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/bnzESTxuhj— أم يعقوب (@ElhamKw) December 9, 2023
This controversy follows a previous incident in October 2022 when Palestinians initiated a campaign to boycott Zara after its Israeli franchise holder, Joey Schwebel, publicly supported the extremist Jewish Forces party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir during Israeli elections.
