TV personality and anti-apartheid campaigner Antoinette Lattoof slammed Event Cinemas for the disgusting contents of a Barbie ‘Chicks at the Flicks’ gift bag.
Lattoof, who watched the film starring Australian Margot Robbie in Sydney on Wednesday night, was upset to receive a gift bag containing a skin whitener and cleaning wipes.
‘I watched #Barbie last night. Who can I thank at #eventscinema for the gift bag that came with the $30 ticket,’ he tweeted.
‘I love that it included cleaning wipes and skin whitening cream. Do I use the chaux to rub it on my skin or do I use it when I scrub the toilet? #You can do anything.’
Lattouf, whose parents came to Australia from Lebanon in the 1970s, co-founded Media Diversity Australia in 2017 to advocate for a more diverse media culture.
He made headlines in March when he appeared on the ABC’s Q+A program and branded Australian television a ‘neo-Nazi wet dream’.
TV personality and anti-apartheid campaigner Antoinette Lattouf (pictured) slams Event Cinemas over shocking contents of Barbie ‘Chicks at the Flicks’ gift bags
Lattoof, who watched the film starring Australian Margot Robbie in Sydney on Wednesday night, was upset to receive a gift bag (pictured) containing a skin whitener and cleaning wipes.
A woman who attended the same screening of Barbie said she received various items in her gift bag.
‘It is very strange! I also got the goodies bag but didn’t get any of them,’ he wrote on Twitter.
Lattoof wrote in response that he was ‘with a large group of 15+ people and most of us got it (the gift bag)’.
Another person tweeted ‘This is so out of place #barbie @Mattel when they are supposed to be included now. Very strange.’
The broadcaster also replied, ‘To be fair to Mattel (a line I didn’t expect to say) the event cinema puts the bag together. It was flicks deal their little chick.’
In March, Lattoof blasted the networks for sticking to the 1960s era of the White Australia policy.
He criticized the representation of multicultural Australia in mainstream local television shows.
‘Australia is really lagging behind the UK or the US,’ he said on Q+A, which was still presented by Aboriginal man Stan Grant.
‘We still have networks or programs that look like neo-Nazis’ wet dreams. We still do, despite more than half the population being culturally diverse.
‘(But) we kind of ignore that voice,’ said the mother of two.
Australian actress Margot Robbie stars as Barbie in a new film about the doll’s life
Her comments came after Grant slammed the lack of representation of people of color on local television.
That night’s program featured an otherwise all-white line-up of British folk singer Billy Bragg, Labor MP Josh Barnes, economist Gigi Foster and Senator Perrin Davey.
“People like you and me are still rare on our screens,” Grant told Lattoof. ‘And the stories are still told by people who look like the other people on the panel here tonight.
‘What does it take to break, because the world doesn’t look like that? It looks like us!’
Succeeding as a non-white in Australia takes determination, Lattoof said.
‘It takes patience. It takes a thick skin. Fight the urge to go into a Tourette-style swinging spiel whenever the opportunity arises.
‘Cause sometimes it’s frustrating that change is glacial. You take one step forward, four steps back.’
He then referred to the upcoming vote on Aboriginal Voices in Parliament.
‘Even in a referendum year, we still have white panels to discuss things like the referendum.
‘We still have all white panels talking about refugee and asylum seeker policy – that confuses me.’
Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf – whose parents immigrated from Lebanon in the 1970s – branded local TV networks a ‘neo-Nazi wet dream’
Lattoof added that ‘at least in the UK … when you flick on the television you see (non-white) politicians, even the Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak, who has Indian heritage).
‘Although he is arguably not a big win for progressive politics.
‘All our storytellers, all our institutions of power – they’re all basically white men,’ he said.
‘There has been some progress now. We have white women. And so there is much more work to be done.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted both Antoinette Lattouf and Event Cinema for comment.