The video, which has since been removed from the company’s YouTube page, also featured actors portraying current PresidentDonald Trumpas well as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It was intended to promote the airline’s new flights to Washington, D.C.
The video sparked immediate outrage from the public on social media.
“This flew under the radar (no pun intended).,” wrote April Reign, creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. “Alitalia dropped an ad featuring a white actor in blackface portraying President Obama. In 2019. Read that again.”
Wrote another Twitter user, “this @Alitalia video showcasing a silent blackfaced “Obama” is reprehensive on so many levels: racism, extreme provincialism, wilful ignorance of facts, lack of historic knowledge. I hope company will apologize (but strongly doubt it).”
After the Italian residents identify him as Obama, the interviewer throws them a second question and asks where the former president was born.
FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
The ad includes the response of one man who incorrectly guesses that Obama was born “in Africa” — an answer that drew further accusations of racism. In response, Alitalia took down the video, andissued an apologyon Twitter.
“I was about to purchase a flight to Rome in Alitalia for next month but I have decided it would be best to fly @airfrance or @lufthansa after this ad. Just completely disgusting,” wrote one user.
“Wow. Never flying your airline again. We took Alitalia just last week from Milan and it was horrible. The plane was dirty, food was nasty and the customer service agents on the phone were the worst. #cancelled,” added another.
Another user replied to the apology, “How the hell did that even get through multiple levels of approval?”
“Everyone in that chain of command should be fired immediately,” an additional Twitter replier wrote.
Despite the clear social media backlash to the action, the use of blackface was aired as planned.
Several months ago, Gucci faced similar accusations when the Italian company released a sweater with a black turtleneck obscuring the lower part of the wearer’s face, which many felt was a form of blackface. The company quickly apologized and stopped the sales of the sweater.
source: people.com
