Fashion giant Dolce and Gabbana's latest ad campaign has been banned from Chinese social media following a backlash from critics and accusations of racism.
The Italian fashion house had launched a new campaign in preparation for its upcoming fashion show in Shanghai on Wednesday.
But the ad campaign has sparked a racism row because it featured videos of a giggling Chinese model struggling to eat Italian foods such as pasta, pizza and cannoli with chopsticks.
Critics also said the use of lanterns and Chinese couplets in the clips were outdated and stereotypical.
Chinese social media platform Weibo has removed the adverts but the clips can still be viewed on Instagram, according to Jing Daily.
One critic commented on Instagram: “It’s almost 2019 now, I don’t understand why a huge brand will still have the stereotype and make fun of it”.
Another wrote: “Embarrassing. Seriously, what’s wrong with their marketing team, do they live in 1908?”
Another critic wrote: "Crass. Racist. Condescending." Another posting under the name Vvvvlu said: "Dolce & Gabanna are racist and did not bother to learn the first thing about their Chinese customers. This ad is an insult to my culture."
"It's very offensive to portray all Chinese people in such a stereotypical way," said another.
Others have called for the campaign, which has been promoted under the hashtag #DGLovesChina, to be deleted from Instagram.
One person wrote: “So many Chinese people feel offended, but you still haven’t deleted. What do you mean?”
Dolce and Gabbanna has not replied to any of the criticism publicly as of yet, but did post an alternative video on their Twitter feed on Tuesday.
The video, captioned: “Tribute to China”, showed models preparing for a fashion show.
D&G has been approached by the Standard for comment.
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