The filmmaker calls Malia Obamas Nike Ad Shougly Somlary to his own work
A dark cloud may have been chosen about the recent Nike announcement of Malia Obama with the WNBA star A’ja Wilson.
At the Sunday 2024 Film Festival, the former first daughter presented a job along with the filmmaker Natalie Jasmine Harris, but there is not where the story ends. In a May 5 publication on X, previously Twitter, Harris pointed out “similarities” between his short film “Grace” and Obama’s recent Nike commercial.
“I have been sitting with this for a while. My short film by Sundance Grace (filmed brilliantly by Tehillah de Castro) was made with deep love and care,” Harris wrote. “The social cut of the new commercial of @nike directed by Malia Obama (which was also in Sunday in my year) feels surprisingly similar to my work …”
Getty images
Harris acknowledged that “art often overlaps”, but admitted that similarity was a “hard” pill to swallow, given how carefully created its history.
On May 16, Harris published an essay with Business Insider, recounting its confusion when you see the announcement for the first time. She noticed that the commercial presented “The people who play Pat-A Cake in a way that echoed an early scene ”of his short film. He also remembered to have met Obama in Sundance, where the two crossed the paths on the brunch of a director and other events.
“Initially, I was disappointed and injured, not only for me but for my whole team,” Harris wrote. “I sent the commercial to friends who had the same reaction I made. One prepared a comparison of firing photos.”
It was paired through Getty Images
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She revealed that her publication caused an online reaction wave. Critics argued that he could not claim property on a childhood game. But as Harris clarified, the problem was not simply the use of PAT-A-Cake, but in the “cinematographic tools used to represent it.”
He added: “My photography director, Tehillah de Castro, pointed out many similarities from a technical perspective, from the angles of the camera to the shots to the composition of the structure and the color palette.”
The representatives of Obama and Nike did not easily respond to News’s request for comments.