John Boyega Directs & Stars In Fragrance Ad, Only To Be Removed Along With All Other Black Actors After It Was Shot

John Boyega directed and starred in an ad based on his personal experience for the British fragrance brand Jo Malone.

After he shot and submitted the ad, Jo Malone reshot the entire thing, replaced the actor with Liu Haoran and excluded all the Black people that who originally starred so that it was more appealing to the Chinese market.

Controversy like this follows Boyega around. He was also removed from the Chinese Star Wars: The Force Awakens promotional poster in 2015.

Jo Malone quickly backpedaled and released a statement, saying:

“We deeply apologize for what, on our end, was a mistake in the local execution of the John Boyega campaign. John is a tremendous artist with great personal vision and direction. The concept for the film was based on John’s personal experiences and should not have been replicated. While we immediately took action and removed the local version of the campaign, we recognize that this was painful and that offense was caused. We respect John, and support our partners and fans globally. We are taking this misstep very seriously and we are working together as a brand to do better moving forward,”

Source:
BET