Gucci has used real tigers in their recent adverts celebrating the Year of the Tiger. It seems the tigers have been trained or tamed to be used as props, accessories, and friendly pets. These adverts really have reminded me of the adorable tiger and his friendship with the little girl Sophie, in The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr.
In the commercial adverts, actual tigers roamed the scenes, and joined a group of friends for high tea, in various spaces of a luxurious, retro-style hotel. See this report.
The adverts have now got people talking about the future of tiger and tiger conservation. I hope the tigers in the adverts were well treated.
Though Gucci has been criticised for using real tigers, I do love the theme of friendship in the adverts. The song Tea for two used in the video, famously sung by Doris Day before, is absolutely beautiful.
Like Christmas, Chinese New Year is a time of togetherness and celebration – spending time with family and friends, showing love and appreciation, and genuinely caring and supporting one another. It’s about building stronger relationships. It’s about bringing people closer. It’s about love.
I’m not going to show you the commercial advert. But they used an adaptation of this beautiful song.
Related posts:
Southampton Chinese New Year Celebration: Sunday 22nd February 2015 West Quay
Chinese New Year Celebration at WestQuay: Sunday 3rd February 2019 from 11am
Online Chinese New Year Celebration from Southampton: Sunday 14.02.2021 at 5pm
2022 Chinese New Year Celebration in Southampton – Sunday 30/1/2022 at Westquay Shopping Centre
A Story about Tiger
I watched the Gucci advert, which ticked all the boxes for diversity. The arguments against using a tiger in Gucci’s commercial advert are twofold; first, that it was possibly cruel, a view which was rebutted by the US Humane Society. Second, was the argument that a wild animal should live its life in the wild as nature intended. For example, hunting, fighting, or living exclusively with other pack members. Although it may seem obvious that this tiger was not fulfilling its essential functions, the objection is difficult to pin down. There is a problem in making sense of claims concerning nature’s intentions. Does nature have intentions, for either humans or other animals? Is it possible to attribute intentions to nature without collapsing into nonsense? This is a familiar fallacy; that of attributing to nature various aspects that are only attributable to human beings. Within limits, most animals can adapt to different strategies, and seek different objectives. In the animal world, no less than in the human world, we might observe Sartre’s point that ‘existence precedes essence’ . The assumption that animals, unlike humans, are rigidly bound to their natural behaviours has no evidential basis and may be a piece of human arrogance. Why are humans alone capable of living their lives in numerous ways, whilst other animals are assumed to be slaves to their biological essence? What is natural for most animals may be transformed through various evolutionary mechanisms and environmental factors. Of course we cannot dismiss the requirements of natural history; most birds need to fly, fish need to swim, cats, rats, ferrets, rabbits and dogs require comfort, warmth, various forms of stimulation – mental and physical – but beyond that we should be wary of the assumption that an animal’s happiness and well-being is confined to the fulfilment of a limited range of experiences and objectives. As animals are losing their wild environment and face extinction, some thoughts might be given to supporting their welfare needs in alternative environments.
Good luck to that beautiful tiger.
Now what was it that Gucci were trying to sell with this advert?
Hi David, thank you for this thoughtful comment. You are right – what are they trying to sell? To be honest I don’t know! If it were the Year of the Dragon, then they would not find a ‘real’ animal and would have to be more creative.