Beyoncé Knowles Carter has been tapped by blue jeans empire Levi Strauss & Company for not only an ad campaign, but also for an entire collection inspired by the mononymous multi-Grammy winning singer.
The Levi's website is awash with images of Beyoncé and a variety of models sporting the new collaboration.
The idea just makes good business sense.
Texas-born Beyoncé has been on tour for her multi-award winning eighth studio album Cowboy Carter, a venture into her country roots. Denim has been a uniform of sorts for many of her recent public appearances and tour stops, both on stage and in the audience.
The original jeans brand partnering with Beyoncé at this moment is a great idea.
Others saw a chance for exploitation.
Sensing an opportunity, perpetual "pick me!" moppet Piers Morgan decided to take one of the Levi's ad promos and gain a little attention for himself and a book he's trying to shill.
Morgan posted on X:
"Very disappointed to see Beyoncé culturally appropriate Marilyn Monroe in her new Levi’s ad."
So everyone's internet Auntie, legendary vocalist Dionne Warwick, asked Morgan "What's good" in an X post of her own.
Morgan has a habit of targeting Black women.
He infamously repeatedly attacked the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, on TV and online, culminating in an on-air tantrum leading to his removal from the British morning program Good Morning Britain. Morgan has also turned his vitriol on tennis champions Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams as well as Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.
Others agreed that Morgan just needed to hush.
Ignoring the fact Beyoncé could have been channeling any number of bombshells who posed in exactly the same way—Dorothy Dandridge, Jayne Mansfield, Rita Hayworth, Anna Nicole Smith, and Beyoncé herself—Marilyn Monroe isn't a culture.
After the backlash, Morgan popped back out from under his rock to proclaim:
"UPDATE: 3.8m views and huge dollops of outrage later… .. a timely reminder that my new book ___, to be published in October, explains why cultural appropriation is bullsh*t and why the woke brigade have no sense of humour."
And continued to post the same, over and over.
Thinking he really did something, Morgan missed a few points others were trying to make.
His "point" was idiotic, his joke was unfunny, and no one wants to read yet another one of his books wherein a rich White man whines about how unfair life is for him.
While the term "cultural appropriation" has been misused by people across the socio-political spectrum almost to the point when the original meaning has been obliterated, it's still a real problem.
Cultural appropriation is when something is taken and exploited by outside, generally more powerful entities without permission or understanding of the originators. Cultural appreciation is when the outside entity communicates and collaborates with the group whose iconography or style they want to use.
For example, the multi-billion dollar fashion house Valentino has done both.
In 2015, they contacted a Métis artist, Christi Belcourt, about using her work for some of their fashion designs.
That's cultural appreciation.
But then in 2024, Valentino got caught copying Indigenous beadwork exactly into their designs without contacting anyone.
That's cultural appropriation.
@spiritsofland/Bluesky
@katyrex.meatjacker.social/Bluesky
Award-winning beadwork artist Jamie Okuma discovered Valentino backpacks with Indigenous beadwork designs directly copied from antique Kiowa and Cheyenne moccasins.
Traditional Indigenous beadwork is individual to tribes, clans, or even families, with each symbol having a meaning.
One family wouldn't copy another's work without permission, and neither should fashion brands who plan to make millions off everything they steal from other cultures.
Such cultural appropriation exists and is harmful, both economically and culturally.
So, as someone stated, sit this one out, Piers.
