Canadian director Sarah Polley is pulling her name from a short film she made that is set to air during the Academy Awards broadcast this weekend.
The Toronto-based filmmaker says The Heart was crafted to promote the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
But in a statement released today, she said that she’s learned her work will also promote a product when it airs during one of the award show’s commercial breaks.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation’s healthy living campaign, dubbed Heart Truth, is sponsored by Unilever brand Becel.
Polley said that she’s “never actively promoted any corporate brand, and cannot do so now.”
The Academy Awards air March 7 on CTV.
“I was thrilled, as I was proud to be associated with the work of this incredible organization,” Polley said Tuesday of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
“However, I have since learned that my film is also being used to promote a product. Regretfully, I am forced to remove my name from the film and disassociate myself from it.”
Though Polley claims to have just learned of Unilever’s association with the film, Becel was a founding sponsor of the Heart Truth campaign going back to early 2008, and a Globe and Mail article in mid-December identified Becel as a sponsor of the film. Requests for comment from both the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Unilever were not returned by press time.
