12 years a slave: Italians promote Brad Pitt

It seems that the Italian distributors of Steve McQueen’s epic ‘12 years a slave’, feel the need to fool people in believing this is a film centered around Brad Pitt, and not Chiwetel Ejiofor. The promotional posters seen around Italy to promote the film show a super large picture of Brad Pitt with a much smaller picture of Chetwell Ejifor below. Hollywood studio Lionsgate which made the movie seem deeply embarrased and are investigating how this occured.

The problem may not have come to light if it wasn’t for an Italian blogger ‘Carefree Black Girl' who drew attention to the poster with dismay and anger:

I've been following the press for months and I can't wait to watch it but REALLY? I don't remember Brad Pitt being the protagonist of the film or having such a pivotal role in the story to stay in the middle of the poster.

I sure don't know anything about marketing strategy to appeal audiences but isn't this going too far?"

In fact although Brad Pitt is a producer on the film, he is seen in the film for less than ten minutes.

Along with the much highlighted problems of racism in Italian football, it seems the nation's inability to deal with race and and confront race inequality persists, even when dealing with a film that has these issues as its core theme.

Simon Woolley