Australia's Ad Standards has dismissed a complaint alleging luxury brand Kenzo breached discrimination codes in an online advertisement.
In a statement to the Ad Standards Community Panel, Kenzo addressed concerns around a ‘Varsity Jungle’ campaign featured on the brand’s homepage.
The complaint alleged the advertisement breached section 2.1 of the Ad Standard Code of Ethics, prohibiting discrimination or vilification of any individual or group of people on the basis of certain defined attributes.
“The complaint objects to "models who are black" with the caption "Varsity Jungle" on the basis that is racialising the models and is linked to a history of comparing people of colour to jungle animals,” Kenzo noted in a statement to the panel. “The complaint alleges that the advertisement is racist and dehumanising.
“The Varsity Jungle advertisement features individuals of diverse races and ages, and a diverse range of individual models are also featured in product images on the Kenzo website, such that the collection’s name “Varsity Jungle” cannot be said to be directed to any particular race or ethnicity (and certainly not with any negative connotation).
“Contrary to the complaint, the vision for the Varsity Jungle campaign is to celebrate values of togetherness and closeness among families and crews.”
Kenzo has a history of appointing diverse models and ambassadors, with its spring/summer 2018 Paris show and H&M campaign drawing international praise for progressive talent casting.
The Ad Standards Community Panel dismissed the complaint and noted the image was part of a wider campaign of diverse models featured on the same webpage.
“The panel considered that advertisements for this range of clothing included people from a wide range of backgrounds and appearances and did not draw any correlation between the term ‘jungle’ and people of a particular race,” the case notes stated.
“The panel noted that there is a negative association between people of darker skin tones and the term ‘jungle’. The panel considered that while diversity in casting is commendable, advertisers should be careful when casting for advertisements which may reflect historical inequalities.”
Finding that the advertisement did not breach any other section of the code, the panel dismissed the complaint.