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Home » Travel » Alitalia In Hot Water For “Racist” Obama Ad
Travel

Alitalia In Hot Water For “Racist” Obama Ad

Matthew Klint Posted onJuly 4, 2019November 14, 2023 12 Comments

a group of men standing next to each other

In celebration of its new service to Washington Dulles, Alitalia commissioned an ad campaign featuring actors portraying famous U.S. politicians. But the Italian flag carrier made a critical faux pax.

The series of Italian ads appeared only on social media and featured actors portraying U.S. presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

But one ad caught the attention of many views, the one featuring former President Obama. There, a Tunisian actor played the ex-President. To better resembled Obama, dark foundation was applied, his nose was enlarged and his mouth and lips were modified. Viewers expressed outrage, condemning the ad as insensitive at best and racist at worst.

Initially, Alitalia defended itself, dismissing one outraged comment on Facebook with the following:

You are exaggerating…the actor we cast is not Caucasian, we used the makeup to change his facial features, not his skin colour.

But as the outrage mounted, Alitalia pulled the ad and issued the following apology:

Alitalia deeply apologises for the offense caused by the promotional video on our new Washington route. It has since been removed from all of our social media channels. For our Company, respect for everyone is mandatory, it was never our intention to hurt anyone and we will learn from what has happened.

And Alitalia appears to have done a good job at scrubbing it, because I cannot find it anywhere.

CONCLUSION

I’d call the Alitalia an honest mistake, but it probably should have known better after all the other blackface issues this year (Gucci, Prada, H&M). I wish we could actually watch the ad…I’m curious how Alitalia poked fun at Obama and Trump…

Have you found a link to these now censored ads? If so, please share a link in the comments section below.

a group of men standing outside

images: screenshots from Alitalia Ad

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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12 Comments

  1. Joseph N. Reply
    July 4, 2019 at 8:37 am

    Alitalia’a faux pax was underestimating how many people now have full time jobs looking for something to call offensive.

    Calling those photos “blackface” is a pretty severe misrepresentation.

    • Lizziean Reply
      July 4, 2019 at 12:29 pm

      I couldn’t agree more and I also couldn’t care less.

  2. Adib B. Reply
    July 4, 2019 at 10:14 am

    Does anyone really care ?

  3. Andreas Reply
    July 4, 2019 at 11:32 am

    I call this issue much ado about nothing.

  4. Landon Reply
    July 4, 2019 at 2:17 pm

    Was very curious why the word racist is in quotes, then remembered you’re white.

    Racism always downplayed by white society.

    • Christian Reply
      July 5, 2019 at 12:15 am

      Exactly what I was thinking. I expected better from Matthew. Then again, the comments show that racist videos are “much ado about nothing”, so maybe he buys into this as well.

    • Brian Reply
      July 5, 2019 at 1:44 pm

      Haven’t seen the ad so can’t say for sure…but the race card is played far too fast many times…sort of like when people make comments like “you’re white so you MUST be racist”.

  5. Esteban Reply
    July 4, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    its makeup. They are portraying Obama so they need to alter the face in order to make him look like Barack. I don’t see the big deal.

  6. dotti Reply
    July 5, 2019 at 3:40 am

    They did a good job he looks like our FORMER Prez!!!

  7. Johnny R Rowland Reply
    July 5, 2019 at 9:46 am

    Obama was not even a president! Just a George Soros mouth piece!.. He’s the one who started all this fake racism, A lot of stupid whites fell for it!!

  8. William G Hildebrand Reply
    July 5, 2019 at 10:12 am

    Nothing wrong with that. Boofers offend people all the time!

  9. James Reply
    July 6, 2019 at 3:27 am

    Maybe european should realise that unlike most european society, the low level education and subsequently equally low intellectuality of america people, added to their lack of productive activity, often caused them to dramatize petty little things. Just like the kardhasians, drama is everything to people of this nation.

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