Much ado about nothing.
From The Daily Mail…
The makers of a hit Hollywood film are at the centre of a race controversy after removing two black actors from a poster being used to promote it in Britain.
The American advert for Couples Retreat, a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kristin Davis, show all eight principal actors – six of whom are white and two black.
Hollywood Elsewhere, who directed me to this piece, have posted an image of the two posters side by side, with a big arrow showing Faizon Love and Kali Hawk, the two black actors in the picture.
Oh and before that… hands up anyone in the U.K. who know who Faizon Love and/or Kali Hawk are without having to check IMDB (or I bet in some cases, even after checking IMDB)?
I thought not.
U.K. poster on the left with Love & Hawk no where to be seen. U.S. poster on the right, with them deep in the background.
Yes that is them, honest! You just might need the old magnifying glass to see them but there they are, on the right hand side… way, way, way in the background.
The deep in the ocean image of the pair from the U.S. poster is almost as bad as a complete omission, no?
Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch-UK got on her high-horse and said…
‘I think this was an ill-conceived move. We celebrate diversity in Britain and we could have coped with seeing the same poster used in America.’
We all know what’s happened here and it’s strictly nothing to do with racism. This is simply a case of the old Hollywood star system.
The U.K. poster (wisely) promotes the six actors you will all recognise and who attract more people into the theatres and is definitely easier on the eye. The U.S. one, with the two extra actors makes it look cluttered and messy.
The U.K. one is definitely the better poster but I don’t believe Universal are playing racists by the marketing. And the decision to scrap the U.K. poster from future international territories, I believe, is more to stop the agro than an admission of guilt, because really, they have nothing to be guilty about…
“A Universal spokesman said the revised advert aimed ‘to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognisable in international markets”.
6 Comments
The “UK Poster” has been doing the rounds in Australia for over 6 weeks now. Not going international my ass.
And yes, it has nothing to do with race. It is entirely a case of nobody giving a flying fuck who either of those actors are, and nor should we. Crap performances in a crap film.
So, they call the UK poster rascist, but actually there is a big orange arrow pointing at the black folks on the US poster…
Just kidding. ;)
As mentioned before: much ado about nothing.
You guys are just a bunch of f*cking rascists. Call a spade a spade!
“The U.K. poster (wisely) promotes the six actors you will all recognise and who attract more people into the theatres and is definitely easier on the eye. The U.S. one, with the two extra actors makes it look cluttered and messy.”
How convenient that the addition of two black actors on the US poster is considered “cluttered and messy”…if that were truly the case the US poster wouldn’t have had them at all. Anything you see on a movie poster is done deliberately, so for the UK poster to omit the only people of color was not by accident.
I agree that sometimes we in the US are over-sensitive to matters of race, but in the same way, Europeans sometimes are over-INSENSITIVE. I think it is very very easy for a white Briton to declare this to be “much ado about nothing” without looking at the other side of the coin.
LOL, Back of the… POSTER in the USA and not on the POSTER in the UK gets lots of POSTS So only four couples and one does not need to be shown on the poster (sorry I have a degree in design and I did not get that one)? How many years after equality will it be b4 they leave out the GLBT couple? Better yet how long b4 they leave out the lets say it GAY MALES! Umm, maybe the Native Americans were right after all. The spirit and body are two different things. A body could have the spirit of a Britt or an American of any race and yes a body can be American and have the spirit of the Taliban locked inside it, oh yeah for the real slow ones it is also possible for the body of someone born in Afghanistan to have the spirit of an American, and still be Muslim! Oh yeah and guess what a body could have both male and female spirits (Native American “two spirit”). How long b4 the world gets that one right?
“The U.K. poster (wisely) promotes the six actors you will all recognize and who attract more people into the theatres and is definitely easier on the eye. The U.S. one, with the two extra actors makes it look cluttered and messy.” LOL Messy could mean something very different to Americans BTW and the British poster was messy in that definition. I would like to advise Vivienne Pattison about true star power. The most popular couple in America (and possible the world) right not lives in the “White House” Oh yeah and they have dark skin. Is it possible that some might be attracted to the American movie seeing a dark completed couple from America? Naw that would never sell, You are so funny as you try to hide. If they are better on the eye did you ever consider making their shades blind in and not take way from the fact they have darker skin? Now that would have been a much better “white wash”, lol so funny indeed.