STYLE Edit: Fashion’s reckoning with fur and animal rights – Gucci is first luxury brand to join The Lion’s Share initiative

Feb 27 , 2020

Gucci became the first luxury fashion brand to join The Lion’s Share initiative in February 2020. Photo: Gucci

Gucci may have staged its spring/summer 2020 campaign around a horse – but the Italian fashion powerhouse is also fighting for biodiversity and animal welfare through The Lion’s Share Fund, co-founded by the United Nations Development Programme

You’ve seen it many times: the polar bears in Coca Cola ads, the chihuahua in the Taco Bell commercials, Tony the Tiger telling you to eat cereal in the morning. Fashion is no stranger to using animals in its advertisements, either. Foxes and feathers were celebrated in the Mulberry Fall 2011 campaign, the Cartier Panthère motif has become a jewellery icon, and a nude Julianne Moore posed with two strategically-placed lion cubs in a Bulgari campaign in 2010.

Almost a decade on, it is admittedly harder to find as many (living) animals featured in fashion campaigns. That’s not to say that animals are experiencing a decline in mass market appeal; 20 per cent of advertisements across industries include animals, and their psychological allure to increase sales has been well-documented.

But perhaps luxury fashion brands have realised the hypocrisy of using live animals in their campaigns when animal fur, hide and skin make up a considerable portion of their clothes, shoes and accessories. Moreover, using animals in advertisements to increase sales and brand loyalty – but not contributing a dime to animal welfare – sounds exploitative.

Of late, in recent seasons, animals have been treated with more respect. You will find Stella McCartney, a pioneer in environmental advocacy, featuring adorable llamas in its autumn/winter 2019 campaign, and Gucci building its spring/summer 2020 campaign around a horse.

Gucci became the first luxury fashion brand to join The Lion’s Share initiative in February, alongside industry leaders Mars, JCDecaux, BBDO, The Economist Group, Finch, Nielsen, DAM and David Attenborough. The Lion’s Share Fund, co-founded by the United Nations Development Programme, aims to raise US$100 million per year over the next five years to improve the planet’s biodiversity and animal welfare.

Brands that join The Lion’s Share contribute 0.5 per cent of their media spend whenever an animal is featured in their advertisements. Like Gucci’s enchanting horse.

Marco Bizzarri, president and CEO of Gucci, says: “Nature and wildlife provide Gucci with inspired creation that is an integral part of our narrative through our collections and campaigns. With the increasing threats to the planet’s biodiversity, groundbreaking initiatives like The Lion’s Share Fund have the potential to be transformative by organically connecting the business community with direct action to protect our natural habitats and most threatened species.”

This is not the first time that Gucci has engaged in projects to support our planet and its biodiversity. In 2018, Gucci announced that it was carbon neutral across the entire supply chain – no small feat when a fashion label’s supply chain typically spans continents. The brand has also been involved in conservation projects across the globe through REDD+, as well as its cultural restoration projects in Italy.

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