According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is defined as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large".
In other words, marketing is a method of developing and showing the message of something to the market, to achieve customer interest and satisfaction, in order for the product to sell.
So marketing should involve careful consideration of the message, in order to appeal, not repel.
And here, Netlix has done something "inappropriate" by creating a poster for the French-language film Cuties for the U.S. and the rest of the world, by involving four young girls in tight dance outfits that expose their legs and midriffs.
In comparison, the French poster shows the four protagonists laughing and dancing, toting shopping bags, while throwing confetti as they walk up a street. Albeit wearing bras and underwear over their clothes, the poster is more lighthearted.
We're deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.
— Netflix (@netflix) August 20, 2020
Neflix apologized, saying that:
The streaming giant's promotion material for Cuties to the international audience was met with heavy backlash, with a petition calling the film "disgusting" and said the 11-year-old actors were being sexualized "for the viewing pleasure of paedophiles".
The petition asks people to sign an online petition calling the film to be banned.
Netflix changed the description of the film from "Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family's traditions" to "11-year-old Amy stars to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew."
Netflix also changed the original synopsis.
But that still, some critics and people were still not happy.
They say that the problem about Cuties isn't only on the marketing material that sexualizes the characters, but was with the age of the children in the film.
"This is actually disgusting," one woman wrote on Twitter. "11 year-olds twerking and the show is rated for mature audiences? Whoever came up with this idea needs to be fired and promptly arrested, and this whole thing needs to never see the light of day."
Cuties is a coming-of-age comedy-drama, originally called Mignonnes. It tells a story from a French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré about Amy, an 11-year-old Senegalese Muslim immigrant girl who becomes obsessed with, and secretly joins, a dance twerk group.
Amy who grows up in a poor area of Paris, defies her family and becomes aware of her burgeoning sexuality.
The plot revolves around Amy as the main protagonist who is later caught and torn between two contrasting sides, traditional values and the internet culture, while also discussing hypersexualization of pre-adolescent girls.
Starring Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas and Maïmouna Gueye, the film that premiered at this 2020's Sundance festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, won the Directing Jury Award.
The film is due to be streamed on Netflix from September 9.
