An Italian airline withdrew a racist ad featuring an Obama impersonator in blackface following backlash on social media. 

Alitalia recently released a new promo celebrating the airline's new Washington D.C route. However, the ad was quickly called out for its blackface depiction. The company removed the promotional video from their social media platforms as an attempt to appease critics.

“Alitalia deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the promotional video on our new Washington route,” the airline said in a statement. “It has since been removed from all of our social media channels. It was never our intention to hurt anyone and we will learn from what has happened.”

According to The New York Daily News, an actor, who is believed to be Tunisian, portrayed former President Barack Obama. The unnamed actor purportedly used dark makeup to capture Obama's skin tone.

Due to the exaggerated features, many critics saw a clear connection to the late 19th and early 20th-century minstrel shows. Blackface makeup was usually worn by white actors in minstrel shows to mock Black people. 

Twitter users wondered how the ad managed to be approved in the first place.

Over the last few months, companies have faced similar backlash for products featuring blackface images. Italian fashion house Gucci had to remove a blackface sweater and singer Katy Perry's eponymous fashion brand was forced to pull shoes. Late last year, Prada removed items that had racist images of monkeys wearing red lipstick on them.

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