Burberry just confused @RizMC for Dev Patel because all brown people look the same? This is why we need to diversify our media. pic.twitter.com/d4iIITHNdo
— Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) February 13, 2017
British fashion house Burberry has issued an apology after a tweet sent during the BAFTA Awards mixed up actors Dev Patel and Riz Ahmed. Both actors were in attendance at the British film awards ceremony, held at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night, with Patel winning Best Supporting actor for his role in Lion.
A tweet sent from the official Burberry account, which was screen grabbed and shared across Twitter, was meant to be a congratulatory message to Patel and to highlight the fact he wore a Burberry tuxedo to the ceremony. However, the picture attached to the tweet was of Ahmed.
The tweet was deleted shortly after it was posted, but not before Twitter reacted to the mistake.
When Burberry can't tell the difference between two brown actors. pic.twitter.com/biOjKwMU6v
— Paul Chowdhry (@paulchowdhry) February 13, 2017
Bloody loved Dev Patel in #TheNightOf and also loved @rizmc in #Slumdogmillionaire. Both amazing Sri Lankan actors. 👏🏻 @Burberry
— Abdullah Afzal (@Abdullah_Azfal) February 13, 2017
...also those Riz Ahmed/Dev Patel and Lil Yachty/D.R.A.M. mix ups are inexcusable in 2017. #ForThePopCulture #notallethnicslookthesame
— Clara Amfo (@claraamfo) February 13, 2017
Approached by The FADER for comment, Burberry issued the following apology:
“We apologize unreservedly for the incorrectly titled pictures of Dev Patel and Riz Ahmed posted late last night. This was a mistake that should not have happened and was corrected immediately. We have apologized directly to Dev and Riz. We are checking our processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Since the original tweet was posted Burberry has subsequently tweeted about both Patel and Ahmed.
Celebrating the #EEBAFTAs in London this evening, Best Actor in a Supporting Role Winner #DevPatel wears a @Burberry custom made navy tuxedo pic.twitter.com/pj6Fwy8XCm
— Burberry (@Burberry) February 12, 2017
Actor @rizmc wearing a grey mohair tuxedo on the #EEBAFTA red carpet at the @RoyalAlbertHall this evening pic.twitter.com/SMzuKaLDNi
— Burberry (@Burberry) February 12, 2017