Perfume brand Jo Malone has apologised to John Boyega after cutting out of a commercial for Chinese audiences
The Star Wars actor was replaced by Chinese actor Liu Haoran in the version of the advert remade for the Chinese market.
The original commercial, entitled ‘London Gent’ was conceived, directed by, and starred John Boyega. The highly personal film featured him walking around his home town of Peckham in South London, hanging out with his real-life friends and family.
Boyega’s film featured a multicultural cast, but the remade version reportedly features no black actors.
We are thrilled to announce that our Jo Malone London Gent film featuring @JohnBoyega is the proud winner of The Fragrance Foundation Virtual Awards 2020 for Best Media Campaign. #ScentofAGent #TheFragranceFoundationAwards pic.twitter.com/rNZpTVXLB6
— Jo Malone London (@JoMaloneLondon) August 27, 2020
“We deeply apologize for what, on our end, was a mistake in the local execution of the John Boyega campaign,” Jo Malone London told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “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.”
John Boyega reportedly was not informed about the remake and only found about it when it was posted on social media.
The new version now appears to have been removed from Twitter.
John Boyega became the first male ambassador for the perfume brand last year.
He spoke to Women’s Wear Daily about how personal the short film was to him, saying: “There’s a mixture of things you see me do in the film, you see me in a professional environment on a film set, then with family and it’s about breaking free of the concept of ‘going back or returning to your roots’ but more about the roots existing with this new side of my life. It’s not a chapter that stops.”
