Gucci’s new campaign welcomes back its horny, early-00s era

In today’s digital age, it’s well-understood that most selfies, TikToks, and campaigns posted online by major celebrities or brands will be met with a slew of unwarranted negativity in the comments. This time around, Gucci has found itself on the receiving end of a wave of homophobic hate on Instagram after dropping its new hot-blooded gifting campaign. 

Envisioned by the label’s new creative director, Sabato De Sarno, the campaign captures a handful of hot couples making out in full Gucci looks. Together – in addition to a few snaps of models lounging on sofas and a short film zooming out on a holiday party – the snogging shots include couples of ranging genders, sexualities, and ages, including two men kissing and a middle-aged couple.

As we know by now, hate towards major mainstream LGBTQ+ visibility is by no means a new thing, and – this time around – homophobic trolls took to the comments stating that they were unfollowing the brand for posting the images. “Hey Gucci, what happened to you?” one user wrote, while others simply listed “unfollowed” underneath the image of the men kissing.

Meanwhile, trans model and activist Munroe Bergdorf shared her love for the images in the comments and De Sarno himself dropped some hearts below them. Elsewhere, users pushed back on the hate, pointing out the blatant homophobia or drawing attention to how the images reference Gucci’s sex-heavy campaigns from the 00s. “To all the people triggered by this, do not search for early 2000s Gucci campaigns,” one user wrote.

With that in mind, this isn’t the first time Gucci’s campaign imagery to have provoked. Back during Tom Ford’s reign at the brand (1994-2004), the creative director cemented Gucci as one of the horniest brands on the market, proving that sex really does sell with a stream of ultra-hot, controversial campaigns. For instance, take the American designer’s SS03 Gucci campaign, which captured model Carmen Kass leaning up against a wall and exposing her pubic hair, which had been shaved in the shape of the brand’s logo. It signalled a playful new era for Gucci, and led to the campaign being banned in some countries.

Gucci aside, fashion has a longstanding history of kissing campaigns – whether it’s Benneton’s 2011 Unhate images, which showed unsettlingly accurate renderings of tonguing politicians, Eckhaus Latta capturing actual sex for AW17, or Jacquemus’ SS21 campaign which showed almost-naked hot couples kissing for the camera.

Perhaps after Sabato De Sarno’s SS24 debut collection for the brand – which, despite rumours of a return to Tom Ford-era sexy sophistication, only saw hints of sexuality through his cute, clean-cut offering – the images hint towards a return to Gucci’s horny, high-risk, high-reward early 00s origins. With the AW24 menswear shows well on their way, we can only hope.