Leading fashion brand Zara’s “The Jacket” ad campaign has received a wave of backlash on X (Twitter). Real Research, an online survey app, conducted a Zara ad controversy survey.

The survey revealed that 62% of respondents were aware of the Zara ad campaign backlash, and 38% were unaware.

Highlights:

  • 7 out of 10 said they would consider an apology as compensation for the gravity of the miscommunication the Zara campaign caused.
  • Over half the respondents did not support the Zara ad campaign backlash as they believed the message was miscommunicated.
  • 57% of respondents said they had seen the recent  Zara campaign promoting their limited-edition clothing line. 

Zara Ad Campaign Backlash

Zara has described its new clothing line as: “a limited edition collection from our house celebrating our commitment to craftsmanship and passion for artistic expression.” 57% of respondents said they had seen the recent campaign promoting this line, while 43% had not.

Zara-limited-edition-campaign
Figure 1: Respondents on seeing the recent Zara limited edition campaign

Public Perception of Zara Ad

The campaign features mannequins wrapped in white plastic and surrounded by rubble. The Zara ad campaign backlash comes from pro-Palestinians accusing Zara of mocking deaths in Gaza. 

In response to this, 35% of respondents were unsure if the campaign was a mockery of the deaths in Gaza, 33% said that it was, and 32% did not feel it was.

Also Read: ZARA’s Shopping Experience and Customer Satisfaction

Zara Campaign Boycott Survey

The Zara ad campaign backlash has escalated to pro-Palestinian activists calling to boycott this campaign. Tens of thousands of complaints flooded Zara’s Instagram, prompting the hashtag “#BoycottZara” to trend on messaging platform X (Twitter). 47% of respondents believed this response was needed, 39% said it was not needed, and 15% were unsure.

Miscommunication on X Users’ Part?

Zara explained that the campaign was only meant to celebrate their commitment to craftsmanship and passion for artistic expression. Zara asserted that it did not intend to cash out on the war, and this was a result of a miscommunication on some X user’s part.

In light of this, more than half (58%) did not support the Zara ad campaign backlash as they believed the message was miscommunicated, while 42% did not believe so.

Zara-campaign-misunderstood
Figure 2: Was the campaign message from the Zara campaign misunderstood?

Issue of an Apology

Fashion giant Zara issued a public apology for its “The Jacket” campaign. 70% of respondents (absolutely: 48.37% + probably 21.62%) said they would consider an apology as compensation for the gravity of the miscommunication caused. 25% said they probably wouldn’t, and 5% said absolutely not. 

Zaras-apology
Figure 3: Is Zara’s apology enough for the serious miscommunication?

The Future of Zara

Finally, the survey on Zara facing backlash over a recent campaign revealed that 52% of the respondents would continue shopping from Zara after such an incident, while 48% said they would rather boycott the brand.

Methodology

 
Survey TitleSurvey On Zara Facing Backlash Over Recent Campaign
DurationDecember 23 – December 30, 2023
Number of Participants6,000
DemographicsMales and females, aged 21 to 99
Participating Countries Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia,… Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong) China (Macao), China (Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greanada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Maluritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar [Burma], Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.