Gucci’s Gay Kiss Angers Homophobic Bigots

Gucci’s latest gifting campaign full of kissing, desire and sexuality has angered some homophobic social media users, who threatened to unfollow the brand. 

The festive campaign for Christmas, curated by creative director Sabato de Sarno, was shared on Gucci’s official Instagram account in December. The Gucci Gift campaign’s theme is “Togetherness”, and aims to spotlight moments spent with loved ones.

The luxury fashion brand kicked off the new year, continuing its gifting campaign by posting to Instagram a photograph of two male models kissing, with the caption reading, “Love, love, love. Celebrating encounters full of emotion with Gucci Gift.”

Love Is Love

The campaign showcases numerous couples engaged in intimate moments while adorned in distinctive Gucci attire. 

Alongside snapshots of models in relaxed poses on sofas and a cinematic portrayal of a festive soirée, the kissing scenes feature couples spanning various genders, sexual orientations, and age groups; one shot in particular shows two men making out heavily on a couch. 

Several homophobic Gucci fans took to the comments to express their anger at the campaign which featured two men kissing. Several commented that they would be unfollowing the brand, while others supported the queer love, with a user commenting, “Imagine it’s 2024 and people still feel the urge to (comment) unfollow because of two men kissing. Just imagine. lol”. 

Other fans appeared humoured by the homophobia. One user wrote, “The amount of homophobia from people even can’t afford Gucci is killing me… Gucci love is love”. 

Tom Ford’s Gucci Controversy 

This is not the first time Gucci’s campaign visuals have stirred up controversy. During Tom Ford’s reign as the creative director from 1994 to 2004, he solidified Gucci’s position as one of the most provocative brands in the market.

Demonstrating that sex indeed sells, Ford orchestrated a series of highly sensual and controversial campaigns.

Gucci’s SS03 campaign featured model Carmen Kass leaning against a wall, revealing her pubic hair intricately shaved into the shape of the brand’s logo while being pushed against a wall by a male model. It resulted in the campaign facing bans in certain countries.

When model Sophie Dahl posed nude for YSL’s Opium fragrance ad campaign in 2000, critics directed their attention toward Tom Ford, accusing him of consistently featuring nude women in his advertisements.

Ford responded to the allegations in an interview with The Guardian, asserting, “I’m an equal opportunity objectifier–I’m just as happy to objectify men,” he reasoned. “The thing is you can’t show male nudity in our culture in the way you can show female nudity. We’re very comfortable as a culture exploiting women, but not men.”

“I did a men’s nude ad at Saint Laurent. Yves did the first one where he was nude [but with legs crossed], and I thought, why don’t we go to the next step and do full-frontal nudity, with a male model? It’s interesting because we did the picture, it ran in some European publications and then it was pulled,” he added.