Malia Obama has been accused of stealing a scene from an indie filmmaker in her new Nike commercial.
The commercial, which depicts two black girls playing patty cake on some front steps, is "shockingly similar" to a scene in the short film Grace, says director Natalie Jasmine Harris.
Harris told Business Insider that Obama used the same techniques and camera angles to duplicate the scene in Grace.
"It’s not about the game. It’s about the cinematic tools used to depict it,” Harris told Business Insider.
While acknowledging that plagiarism can sometimes be fuzzy, Harris shared a side-by-side comparison to prove her point.
“I know art often overlaps, but moments like this hit hard when you’ve poured your heart into telling stories with care and barely get the recognition you deserve," she wrote on X.
"If brands want a certain look, why not hire from the source instead of for name recognition."
Been sitting with this for a while. My Sundance short film GRACE (shot brilliantly by Tehillah de Castro) was made with deep love and care. The social cut of the new @Nike commercial directed by Malia Obama (who was also at Sundance my year) feels shockingly similar to my work… pic.twitter.com/iy2N2krpQN
— Natalie Jasmine Harris (@nataliejharris) May 6, 2025
Obama and Harris met at the Sundance Film Festival last year, where Grace was screened.
According to Harris, Obama's commercial is part of a bigger problem with nepotism in the film industry rewarding derivative or uninspired artists.
“It speaks to a larger issue of brands not supporting independent artists and opting for folks who already have name recognition, which doesn’t breed innovative films or original storytelling,” said Harris.
Malia Obama dropped her famous last name for her film career, going by Malia Ann. The move was teasingly dismissed by her father, former president Barack Obama, who acknowledged that there is no real way for his two daughters to hide who they are.
The former president insisted his daughters are "stubborn" about making their own way in the world.
“I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that,” he said of his last name. “The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,” Barack said. “I mean they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it.”
