Couples Retreat Poster Controversy

Movie posters for the film “Couples Retreat” are facing a large controversy in the U.K. on the issue of racism. For the U.K. posters of the film, Universal had decided to digitally remove the names and photos of the only black couple played by actors Kali Hawk and Faizon Love. Evidently noticeable, the U.S. version of the poster all eight members of the cast with Hawk and Love are seen standing in knee-deep water, while in the released version for U.K., only the six white actors and actresses are seen on a mountain backdrop.

England’s “The Daily Mail” states that a Universal spokesman confirmed that the revised ad’s purpose was “to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognizable in international markets”. However critics and audience alike are taking in the controversial design change badly. Ann Simonton, founder of the non-profit organization Media Watch clarifies critics concerns saying, “Any discrepancy between the posters is cause for alarm because it makes racist assumptions about target markets. But this is a somewhat common response to how advertisers target audiences. So much of advertising depends on our ignorance and it’s important for the consumer to remain ignorant. When they eliminate diversity, it maintains this false view of our world. It’s sickening to think about what the industry’s motives are, but it’s important that they be called on it.”

UK director for Mediawatch, Vivienne Pattinson shared to the Mail her opinions stating, “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.”

Universal had already acknowledge their mistake stating that it wasn’t among their intentions to cause any biases on the black people, but rather the poster’s change was for promotional purposes in the U.K. The studio may have based their decisions from a long history of black actors and actresses less appeal to foreign audiences. In fear of not garnering many sales from the international market with an unknown black couple in the poster, they opted to risk and take them out.

However Universal had obviously forgotten how “Slumdog Millionaire” had changed the face of international cinema as it came out as the third highest-grossing film this year in U.K. Carried by a cast of unknown actors and actresses, the film sailed high and hit massive earnings.

Despite Universal’s main reason was based on increasing grosses and not sending out subliminal discriminatory racist messages, the choice to cut Love and Hawk was a bad PR move from the beginning.