Valentino Designer Reacts to Anti-gender Comments

Advertising campaigns are an important brand strategy to mobilize the customer base. The reactions at the end of this strategy can change the image of the brand in front of the audience. And responses may not always be positive.

Over the past months, Valentino has uploaded a series of advertising campaign images for the accessory collection on the brand's social media account. However, some pictures caused unexpected reactions from them. (Actually, I don't know how accurate it would be to say the unexpected because the possibility of causing sensation is really visible.)

Self-portrait of photographer Michael Bailey Gates got some bad reviews on the internet. (comments about being a hermaphrodite). Despite these reactions, Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of the brand, wrote articles to stand behind the work he shared and made the photo on his page. "This picture is a self-portrait of the young beautiful man, and it is in evil. Not in his naked body, but the eye of the beholder,"

The post was praised by many in the fashion industry such as Diet Prada, Bryanboy, and Karla Welch. And as a result, the advertising campaign was talked more than expected, with the sensation that the advertising campaign created. In this way, the campaign resulted in the advantage of the brand rather than the smear campaign.