Hey Where Did the Black People Go? UK Removes Black Actors from Poster for “Couples Retreat” Release
Yikes. Looks like Universal has removed African-American actors Faizon Love and Tasha Smith from the “Couples Retreat” movie poster.
I’m not all that offended by this, I do understand marketing decisions but I find it interesting that the actors’ likeness and names were removed from the movie’s poster. And all this for the purposes of marketing the film in the UK?
As and actor, I’ve been cut out of many projects before so it’s understandable–on my part. However, this has raised some eyebrows with some black folks. It’s all good…
Universal said it regretted causing any offense, and it has abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries. A Universal spokesman said the revised advertisement was aimed to simplify the poster to actors who are the most recognizable in international markets.
Weird… considering there *are* people of African origin in the U.K. In fact, quite commonplace on BBC and etc.