John Boyega has quit his role as a Brand Ambassador for Jo Malone after they replaced him in an advert with a Chinese Actor.
The Star Wars actor created the original advert for the perfume brand entitled 'A London Gent' in his hometown and said that the video celebrated his own personal story and was offended that the company made the decision to re-shoot the ad for the Chinese market. Boyega has said Jo Malone were "wrong" to have used another actor and to reshoot the video without his consent and later wrote on Twitter that "dismissively trading out one's culture this way is not something I can condone".
The original advert was released last year and followed the narrative of Boyega being surrounded by candles on a film set as he reflects on memories of spending time in his hometown Peckham with his friends and family. The ad included shots of John riding on a white Horse, dancing in a club and strolling through a local market. The Chinese version, starring Actor Liu Haoran mimicked the structure of Boyega's video and reused many of the key creative concepts including the Horse.
Perfume brand Jo Malone have since apologised for cutting John out of the advert and commended him on being a "tremendous artist with great personal vision and direction." In a statement they wrote: "We deeply apologise for what on our end was a mistake in the local execution of the John Boyega campaign.” The company also pointed out that they immediately took action and removed the local campaign adding that they "recognise that this was painful and that offence was caused" and they "are working together as a brand to do better moving forward.”
You can watch the original campaign advert John Boyega conceived, directed and starred in by clicking here!