YouTube/Sony Pictures Classic
Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
Sony Pictures was simply trying to promote one of its upcoming movies and the great reviews it’s receiving.
Unfortunately, their UK Twitter account made a rookie mistake.
Call Me By Your Name is one of the most anticipated movies this fall season. It seems destined for award nominations and it puts a queer relationship front and center.
However, you might not know that from this tweet. The account quickly deleted it after the understandable backlash and trolling. This is the internet, though, and screencaps are always a danger.
The main romance of the film is between Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer).
This tweet, featuring a gushing quote from Empire’s review, reading ‘it’s a romance overwhelming in its intensity, a heart that swells until it has to burst,’ shows Elio and his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel).
Then Twitter did what it does best — it quickly began dragging the account for the misleading erasure.
‘Sony, they’re gay’
Pretty offensive and disingenuous, @SonyPicturesUK, to try and sell this gay romantic film as heterosexual. What are you afraid of? Be proud
— Josh Zinn (@joshzinn) November 7, 2017
Why are you making it look like a heterosexual romantic film? Erasure in advertising to appeal to the mass market, hm?🤔
— Joe Dimmock🏳️🌈 (@joedimmock) November 7, 2017
Sony straight-washing “Call Me By Your Name” is a reminder that Hollywood still doesn’t know how to market queer film.
h/t @benfraserlee pic.twitter.com/pyUqmAcaf3
— Busty Alexa (@Nico_Lang) November 7, 2017
Then the memes started rolling in.
First, people began making tweets about other movies and offering misleading information.
Have you seen the gorgeous romance Carol yet? pic.twitter.com/PZI1erh86g
— Caroline Framke (@carolineframke) November 7, 2017
I much prefer the story of a woman overcoming oppression, in Hidden Figures (2016) pic.twitter.com/zsh8VkrV6o
— alex abad-santos (@alex_abads) November 7, 2017
Have you seen Brokeback Mountain yet? pic.twitter.com/JkbqF91dOC
— Alex Bedder (@itgetsbedder) November 7, 2017
And watch Sean Penn’s Oscar winning performance in Milk pic.twitter.com/s4QcfFinVf
— Andrew Evans ★ ❄️🌻 (@AndrewDEvans) November 7, 2017
Brad Pitt had to face so much oppression in 12 Years a Slave. Really shows how horrible slavery was 😭 x pic.twitter.com/L7SQIsVf9C
— WelshFilmFan (@WelshFilmFan) November 7, 2017
We have a new catchphrase.
“Sony, they’re gay” is the new “Harold, they’re lesbians”
— ً (@danielonmyown) November 7, 2017
GSN reached out to Sony for comment.
