2024-07-24 00:28:44
BOLZANO. In the mountains there is an unwritten law of brotherhood, not only in times of difficulty. Above a thousand meters of altitude, people are strictly on first name terms, even with complete strangers, because on the peaks (as at sea) there are no borders, especially not mental ones. This evidently does not apply to the so-called haters who have flooded with racist comments a Salewa advert featuring a black boy, guilty of smiling and wearing a nice technical t-shirt and carrying a mountain backpack on his shoulders. The testimonial, a French model of Sudanese origins, has been compared by keyboard warriors to thieves, refugees and high-altitude porters. The Bolzano-based mountain gear manufacturer was forced to delete the hateful comments.
“Our position on inclusion in the mountains does not change. The mountains belong to everyone,” reiterates Salewa’s marketing director, Thomas Aichner. “We have already done campaigns in the past with models of different skin colors. For us, all men are equal,” continues the marketing director. The banner for the end-of-season sales is visible on Instagram and Facebook not only to followers of the brand, which operates internationally, but also to a wider range of potential customers. “In a short time,” he says, “a debate was triggered on Facebook with some positive comments and others strongly racist.”
More than one announced that in the future they will boycott the brand. “We are open to the debate, we do not back down, but it is useless to conduct it on Facebook”, thus explaining the choice to forgo a reply, in the hope of making the haters change their minds.
“The model is originally from South Sudan, is a French citizen and lives in Nice. Last year we made a video with him and now we used a photo of him to kick off the end-of-season sales,” says Aichner, also expressing regret for the boy who has been overwhelmed by xenophobia in the heart of Europe. Salewa has not deleted the banner, but will not launch it in Germany (“because the context is no longer right”).
According to Aichner, “the Alps are sometimes still claimed as property by those who live there, while they belong to all those who respect them“. The fact brings to mind the controversy that erupted on social media in 2016, again in South Tyrol, when a small ski school in the Isarco Valley offered a few hours of lessons and lightheartedness to eight African refugees. Even then, the photo of the boys unleashed the keyboard lions and the school was forced to regretfully delete the post.
2024-07-24 00:28:44