Sony Pictures UK deleted a tweet promoting the gay-themed romance Call Me By Your Name which appeared to be marketing the film as a straight romance. We've seen this straightwashing before.
The post married a deservedly gushing quote from Empire magazine with an image from the film. “It's a romance overwhelming in its intensity, a heart that swells until it has to burst,” the ad read while five golden stars lay atop. The tweet asked if followers had seen the film in question yet the real question remains, has Sony's social media manager seen the film? Because instead of focusing on the winsome gay romance at its centre, a deliberately misleading still was used of Timothee Chalamet, who plays the focal teen, joyfully posing alongside Esther Garrel, who stars as a local girl with whom he has an understandably doomed sexual relationship.
It led to users replying with similarly inaccurate film stills (an inspiring picture of Kirsten Dunst in Hidden Figures, a romantic shot of Cate Blanchett and Kyle Chandler in Carol) and after a well-earned roasting, it was deleted.
