Alitalia apologizes, pulls ad featuring actor in blackface as Obama

Italy's flagship airline has pulled down and apologized for a promotional video that featured an actor in blackface pretending to be former President Barack Obama.

The ad, posted by Alitalia this week, featured a non-black actor in heavy makeup posing as Obama. The actor's nose, mouth, and lips were also enlarged, according to before-and-after shots of the actor posted by France's BFMTV channel.

The controversial ad had been part of a four-part series of social media videos advertising a new non-stop route from Rome to Washington, DC, according to The New York Times and Al Jazeera.

The other videos in the series included other actors playing President Donald Trump, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the outlets reported.

Alitalia on Wednesday removed the video from YouTube, and said "it was never our intention to hurt anyone" in its apology posted on Twitter and Facebook.

"Alitalia deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the promotional video on our Washington route. It has since been removed," the company said.

"For our Company, respect for everyone is mandatory, it was never our intention to hurt anyone and we will learn from what has happened."

Prior to the apology, however, Alitalia had resisted accusations of racism and defended the video on Facebook, the Times, Al Jazeera, and VICE Italia reported.

After Leonardo De Franceschi, a media and cinema researcher at the University of Rome, complained about the "racist" marketing campaign on Facebook, an unnamed representative for the airline hit back by saying that the actor is not white, according to Al Jazeera.

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"The actor we cast is not Caucasian, we used the makeup to change his facial features, not his skin color," the Alitalia representative said, as cited by Al Jazeera. But the before-and-after photos of the actor, published in the video above, appear to contradict that statement.

According to VICE Italia, Alitalia's social media manager also responded to critics on Facebook by saying: "During the shooting we met many American tourists, everyone had a lot of fun with us but no one raised this issue."