United ad yanked from Tribeca after mockery by festival attendees

Judging by reports of audience reactions, the funniest film at this year's Tribeca Film Festival wasn't even a film at all — it was a commercial for United Airlines' new Polaris business class. And as a result, United decided to yank that commercial out of its spot, TheWrap has learned.

The airline, now best known for forcibly removing and bloodying a paying passenger to make room for some of its employees, is a cosponsor of the annual film festival in New York. But when a commercial promoting the virtues of its new lie-flat business class product was played before screenings to Tribeca's well-heeled audience, all they could do was laugh.

That led Tribeca and United to make the joint decision to pull the commercial from screenings as of Saturday, a source close to the festival told TheWrap, to avoid it becoming a further distraction. The Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 19-30.

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Last week, in the wake of the seat-removal incident, United announced that CEO Oscar Munoz would not be assuming the role of chairman next year as originally planned. Munoz was criticized for his handling of the situation, with some of his early statements, where he talked about "re-accommodating" passengers, blasted as tone-deaf.

Steve Pond contributed reporting to this article.

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Read original story United Ad Yanked From Tribeca After Mockery By Festival Attendees At TheWrap