Universal's new black eye: African American actors disappear from 'Couples Retreat' poster

 It's perfectly normal for a Hollywood studio to revamp its marketing campaign when a film is released overseas. Every culture is a wee bit different, so marketing tweaks happen all the time. But Universal Pictures really goofed in a big way when it released a new poster for the U.K. release of its hit comedy, "Couples Retreat," which stars Vince Vaughn as one half of a couple who join three other couples on a holiday dedicated to improving everyone's marital relationships.

The original U.S. poster was a bit crowded, showing all eight featured actors in the film. So for the film's U.K. release, Universal's marketing wizards decided to simplify the poster by ... cutting out the film's black couple! All six white actors remain in the U.K. poster. But the actors playing the film's African American couple -- Faizon Love and Kali Hawk -- disappeared altogether. The U.K. poster keeps Vince Vaughn front and center -- after all, he's the star -- while moving the supporting white couples up more into the foreground. (You can read London Mail's story about the gaffe here.) 

No one at Universal is talking on the record, at least so far. But it's obvious that the studio wanted to simplify the poster -- the rule of thumb in marketing is the fewer faces on a poster, the better. It's also obvious that the black actors were the least known members of the cast. Still, no one seemed to realize what a PR disaster would unfold if the only actors who were cut were the African American couple. After Universal was swamped by letters of complaint and negative U.K. press coverage, it quickly moved to quell the outrage by agreeing to return to its original poster with the full cast for future international releases. But the damage was done. Vivienne Pattison, director of Media Watch UK, told the Mail: "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."

Studios make dumb decisions all the time. But I've talked to enough frustrated black filmmakers over the years to know the real underlying issue behind these kinds of gaffes. The decision-makers at studios are virtually all white, so they don't see potential racial slights in the same light as they would if they had someone -- anyone! -- of color in the executive suite. When I asked a Universal executive who its highest ranking African American marketing executive would be, he gave an honest answer, saying the studio would pull a zero. So, to be fair, would most other Hollywood studios. 

As always, the real solution to this kind of issue would be for Hollywood to find a way to hire a decent sampling of African American executives so its decision-making wouldn't look so clueless and out of touch with the diversity in the rest of our culture. Studio reps always tell me they are involved in all sorts of affirmative action campaigns. So maybe they're trying to do better, but I'm still waiting to see some concrete results.

Images: Top, the U.S. poster; below, the altered version for the U.K. 

Comments

[Color Blind Marketing]

The Age of Political Correctness says this was a really dumb marketing move.
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Yet would we even be reading about this in the Times if the couple removed was white???
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To IMPLY in the slightest that this was a racist move is reverse racism.
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RESEARCH and REPORT THE WHOLE STORY FIRST to see if this was an honest mistake---because maybe the person responsible didn't see race at all and simply removed the least known actors while completing the work assignment handed to them.
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LA Times: Find out first before reporting a non-story. Don't try and manufacture the news. You are supposed to be journalists---and supposed to be a lot better than this.

[Mike]

another day, another attempt to play the race card!!!!!

[GT]

I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than it really is. Pointless article.

[Not A. Story]

Zzzzzzzzz.........

[Cleo]

I have to say it isn't just their faces that have been removed. Their names have also been removed from the second poster! This is outrageous, so much for the eradication of racism.

[Rick Mitchell]

At the risk of giving heart attacks to those who know me, I have to say at least one good thing about the old MCA/Universal: I know from personal experience that they were dedicated to recruiting entry level minority executives---40 years ago. As long as they met the basic qualifications of being business, law, or possibly film school graduates. And they couldn't find any because in those days the entertainment industry did not have the cachet it developed over the next decade and possible candidates preferred to go into more respectable industries.

And though it is not as bad now as it was even 20 years ago, there is still a tendency to ghettoize black and American Latino characters and filmmakers, usually minimizing their roles in films aimed at mainstream audiences and often forcing them to reflect stereotypes. This was the most interesting aspect of the recent LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, that it was so multicultural without any stereotyping other than being Americans. Of course, it was the work of a black director for an independent company.

Rick Mitchell
Film Editor/Film Historian

[Jamal]

Hey Vic Fera,

Maybe Asians and Latinos should get in the business and start making their own big budget movies so they can be represented. Tyler Perry got tired of being mis-and/or-underrepresented in movies and look what he did.

[Jolie]

I say remove all of these actors from the poster. They all stink in my opinion. They just appeal to the banal groups of white society anyway.

[Michelle JOnes]

This UK verison was also posted in Australia.

[WillyWanker]

If you turn on any television channel you will more likely than not find yourself watching a commercial featuring an African American. A disproportionate percentage of AAs are featured on current advertising. It would appear, to an outsider, that America is made up of 50% black 20% Caucasian and 15% each for Latinos and Asians. Of course the actual percentages that make up the American populace is nothing of the sort, but in these 'politically correct' times, up is down and black is white.

Regarding 'Couples Retreat', no one knows who the excised couple were in the ad. Enough with the 'race card'. It's gotten tiresome and shouting out 'racism' is no longer viewed as anything other than expedient and desperate.