Delta once sponsored a production of Julius Caesar where the emperor looked like Obama

(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

published 13 June 2017

On Sunday, Delta Air Lines yanked its sponsorship of a controversial performance of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in New York City, which depicts the titular emperor as a Trump-like figure. The corporate protest took specific issue with the play's famous assassination scene, which was criticized by Fox News for "appear[ing] to depict President Trump being brutally stabbed to death by women and minorities."

But in 2012, Delta Air Lines took no issue with sponsoring an Obama-inspired Julius Caesar performance in Minneapolis, Broadway World has discovered. From a review of that performance:

…Because Caesar is cast as a tall, lanky black man, the Obama inference is a bit too obvious. But it fits, sort of. Like Caesar, Obama rose to power on a tide of public goodwill; like Caesar, there were many in government who doubted Obama's leadership abilities; and now that Obama's first term has failed to live up to the messianic hype, there are plenty of people who — for the good of the country, you understand, not their own glory — want to take Obama down. [MSP Mag via Broadway World]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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