Dior stands by Johnny Depp inking new multi-year seven-figure deal

Dior has recently shared a series of photos featuring its ambassador, Johnny Depp on Instagram after Depp had reportedly renewed his contract and signed a new multi-year seven-figure deal with the fragrance brand. Depp has been the face of Dior since 2015, and despite the allegations of physical abuse made by Depp's ex-wife, Amber Heard, in 2018 sent his career into a tailspin, the brand has stood by the star.

Since the lawsuit, both Depp and Heard have claimed to have lost a number of acting gigs. However, in June, the singer and actor walked away with a win in a defamation lawsuit against Heard. Depp thanked everyone for their support in a heartfelt social media post following his victory and expressed his intentions to get his life back on track. The post received over 19 million likes and thousands of comments, including famous figures.

However, most recently as over 6,000 pages of court documents were unsealed, surfacing more disturbing new information about the Hollywood star. This includes text messages between Depp and a friend about hypothetical crude ways they would use to murder Heard. Celebrities who liked Depp’s Instagram statement after he won the case against Amber Heard have also reportedly unliked the post. This includes stars such as Amanda Knox, Bella Hadid, Halle Bailey, Yung Blud and many others. Many netizens could also be seen flooding Depp’s comments section under his ‘victory’ post with negative sentiments, accusing him of being a liar and manipulator.

Despite all the controversies about Depp, Dior has continued having the Oscar-nominee as the face of its brand until today, leading the brand to face some critics. In the Instagram post that it had recently shared, Dior referred to Depp as the face of its brand in the caption, “Fearless yet human, just like Sauvage", and some comments such as "You have chosen to have an abuser as the face of your brand" as well as "#johnnydeppisanabuser" ensued. 

It's not hard to understand why the fragrance company continues to use Depp as its brand face. In recent months, the hype surrounding the defamation trial between Depp and Heard has apparently increased demand for Dior's Sauvage fragrance. According to many media outlets, including Metro UK and Harper's Bazaar Australia, Google searches for the fragrance increased by 48% in a single month, from 832k in March of this year to 1.2 million in April.

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