Burberry has been forced to issue an apology after appearing to mistake Riz Ahmed for Dev Patel in a tweet during last night’s BAFTAs.
Patel won the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Lion, while Ahmed was in attendance promoting Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which won neither of the two awards it was nominated for.
During the event, the official Burberry Twitter account posted a photo of Ahmed, along with the caption: “Celebrating the ‘EEBAFTAs in London this evening, Best Actor in A Supporting Role winner #DevPatel wears a @Burberry custom-made navy tuxedo.”
After the mistake was spotted by fans, Burberry deleted the message and issued a statement, reading: “We have apologised directly to Dev and Riz for the mistake. We are incredibly sorry, it should not have happened. We are checking processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
When Burberry can't tell the difference between two brown actors. pic.twitter.com/biOjKwMU6v
— Paul Chowdhry (@paulchowdhry) February 13, 2017
After deleting the offending post, Burberry later tweeted two correct photos of Patel and Ahmed. See below.
Celebrating the #EEBAFTAs in London this evening, Best Actor in a Supporting Role Winner #DevPatel wears a @Burberry custom made navy tuxedo pic.twitter.com/pj6Fwy8XCm
— Burberry (@Burberry) February 12, 2017
Actor @rizmc wearing a grey mohair tuxedo on the #EEBAFTA red carpet at the @RoyalAlbertHall this evening pic.twitter.com/SMzuKaLDNi
— Burberry (@Burberry) February 12, 2017
The 2017 BAFTA Awards ceremony took place in London last night, with ‘La La Land‘ swooping to victory. See the full list of winners and nominees here.
Ken Loach slammed the ‘callous’ and ‘brutal’ Tory government during his Best British Film acceptance speech, while Emma Stone called for unity as she picked up the Best Actress award.