NYSOM: A for Action... but D for Diversity..?

When the nominations for next week’s Oscars came out, there was much talk around my office of who would walk with the awards come March 2nd. An amateur betting pool on the outcome would have been a total conflict of interest, but if that had been the case, it seemed that 12 Years a Slave would have been a frontrunner. Much was made elsewhere of director Steve McQueen and star Chiwitel Ejiofor (who plays Solomon Northup) being black and how it could be a watershed moment if they won. But here’s a secret – inside our office, the pigment of their skin was only mentioned in the context of there being a recent raft of movies that explored race in America.

I like to think, when I can, that race isn’t really an issue in America – or at least not in entertainment circles. I’ve never sat down to watch a great action movie and thought of Denzel Washington, Samuel L Jackson, Lawrence Fishburne or Will Smith as ‘black action stars’ any more than I think of George Clooney, Michael Fassbender, Matt Damon or Brad Pitt as ‘white action stars’. Unless the story itself evokes a race card, then I like the kind of movie where the lead can be chosen from the widest talented pool.  Later this year, Washington will assume the role of Robert McCall in The Equalizer (pictured), a role created by Edward Woodward. My reaction to the ethnicity issue? It's a non-issue. From the clips I've been privy to...can't wait.

In 2014, I really thought we were over it – but are we?

Last month, I headed to a bar in Manhattan with my erstwhile troupe of PR peeps to get out of the freezing cold temperatures and watch the annual slamathon known as the Super Bowl. Beer! Pretzels! Much cheering, heckling and armchair quarterbacking! (I can’t criticise American Football without having my green card revoked, but is it a crime to admit that I still  enjoy the commercials more than the action? Nowadays, I really don’t think so!)  

Amid the various trailers  for upcoming blockbusters and adverts with dancing animals and zingy one-liners, Coca-Cola aired an advert that showed “America, The Beautiful” being sung in different languages by people who were born here and people who had settled here – the ones who taken up Lady Liberty’s offer and made a new life in the United States. Both a clever marketing exercise (echoing the famous "I’d like to teach the world to sing…" commercial of yesteryear) and a statement of huggy unity, it was by any reasonable standards an uplifting and sassy moment shown amid a lot of guys throwing their weight and a ball and generally slamming into each other all around a stadium. 

It went down fairly well in the bar by those not grabbing a bathroom-break amid the carnage… and, I suspect, in most households watching the coverage. But within minutes of the advert airing, Twitter and social media apparently erupted. Well, no, let’s not say erupted. More spewed.

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