What Makes It Cultural Appropriation?

In 2019, Dior pulled an ad campaign featuring Johnny Depp and a Native American dancer for a fragrance line called Sauvage. The same year, Kim Kardashian spent millions on renaming her shapewear brand Skims following backlash for initially calling it Kimono. In each case, brands were responding to the criticism that they were engaging in "cultural appropriation," which is the inappropriate use of a culture that is not one's own. Such missteps and controversies span across different industries, including fashion, beauty, food, hospitality, music, and entertainment.

Despite the prevalence of such cases, prominent celebrities and brands still struggle to recognize when and why consumers may feel offended by their usage of cultural elements. Even if the intent is to honor some aspect of a culture, consumers may nevertheless read it as appropriation. So, when and why is the usage of cultural elements considered cultural appropriation by consumers?

How the Public Defines Cultural Appropriation

To tackle this question, my colleagues and I first asked a representative sample of more than 300 people in the United States to define cultural appropriation in their own words. The team carefully read everyone's definition and found that two main themes emerged in people's sense of cultural appropriation: disrespect and exploitation.

In other words, when a brand incorporates culture into its products and marketing, people are more likely to interpret it as cultural appropriation when it seems like the brand is being disrespectful towards an identity group and unfairly benefitting from their culture.

And it wasn't just that survey. We saw these themes everywhere we looked. We interviewed attendees at an event that celebrates culture (the Natural Hair Fest), analyzed recent news articles on cultural appropriation, and examined the academic literature across different disciplines. Consistently, disrespect and exploitation emerged as the foundation of perceived appropriation.

Is it Always Cultural Appropriation?

Now, you might be thinking that incorporating culture into social media content, advertisements, and products is so common that there is no way all of it is appropriation. You're not alone.

Across several studies, we asked thousands of people about themselves and their views of brands in categories ranging from food and cookbooks to beauty and fashion. The brands incorporated cultural elements, inspired by real instances of alleged cultural appropriation. We found that whether people perceived something as cultural appropriation depended on both the characteristics of the person and the brand's use of culture.

First, we found that political ideology mattered. Overall, liberals perceived more cultural appropriation than conservatives, even when the product was the same. As a result, liberals liked the brand less and were less interested in purchasing it. In general, liberals tended to be more concerned about the power imbalance between the brand and the commercialized culture, which ultimately explained why they saw these instances more as appropriation.

And it's not that conservatives never saw things as appropriation, but they seemed to be using different criteria for making that call. They were more likely to base their judgments on whether the brand had good intentions for incorporating the culture, leading them to be less likely to deem a brand's usage of culture as offensive and disrespectful.

Second, it mattered what cultures were being represented and how. When brands use elements from disadvantaged cultures—those that were historically the targets of discrimination and prejudice—consumers are more likely to see it as cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is ultimately about unfairness and injustice. So, when a brand borrows and benefits from a culture whose people have been mistreated in the past for that very cultural practice, consumers (especially liberals) are more likely to call the brand out for being unfair.

Other actions that brands take—such as incorporating cultural elements without permission, claiming to "improve" the culture, commercializing cultural elements in a culturally incongruent way, which misrepresents the culture, and using a model who does not belong to the culture—can also affect whether consumers see the brand as engaging in cultural appropriation. When these actions spark feelings of disrespect and unfairness, people are more likely to perceive it as cultural appropriation.

Brands and Social Responsibility

Consumer awareness of the impact of consumption on the world is on the rise. Consumers care about how their purchases affect the marketplace and society. Brands, celebrities, and influencers should bear in mind that their actions and messaging have historical context that can lead to perceptions of cultural appropriation.

Our research unpacks and explains what consumers perceive as cultural appropriation and adds to the discourse on why the commercialization of culture can feel unfair and exploitative. It is crucial for brands to understand these complexities so they do not unintentionally offend their customers and appear disrespectful.

For Further Reading

Lin, J., Kim., N., Uduehi, E., & Keinan, A. (2023). Culture for Sale: Unpacking Consumer Perceptions of Cultural Appropriation. Journal of Consumer Research, ucad076. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad076

Jason Lin's research focuses on consumer psychology, branding, and perceptions of unfairness and inequality in the marketplace. He teaches branding and is pursuing doctoral studies in Marketing at Boston University's Questrom School of Business.