Film and television giant Netflix was embroiled in a racism row last night following claims that it alters the marketing of its programmes to target viewers’ ethnicity.

The popular streaming service was described as ‘creepy and racist’ by some black viewers who complained that black actors featured in its advertising of films despite the fact they had minor roles.

They cited the example of Love Actually. The film stars white actors Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, but the advertising they saw on Netflix featured the black actor Chiwetel Ejiofor despite his minor role in the film.

Most users are greeted with an image of Hugh Grant as the image advertising Love Actually. But some have reported seeing black actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has a minor role

Ejiofor's character doesn't appear in the official movie poster

Similarly, black viewers noticed that actors from ethnic minorities were shown on the artwork for ITV’s detective series Lewis rather than its white stars, Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox.

Tolani Shoneye, from London, who hosts a podcast, felt ‘duped’ by the marketing trick.

She said: ‘It’s intrusive. It’s the dark side of marketing ... There was 30 minutes of a romcom I ended up watching last week because I thought it was about the black couple I was shown on the poster.’

Set It Up is made to look like a romcom between Taye Diggs and Lucy Liu, rather than the white couple in the lead roles

Tobi Aremu, a film-maker from New York, added: ‘It’s beyond feeling duped. Because if something is black I take no offence in being catered to. I am black, give me black entertainment, give me more – but don’t take something that isn’t and try to present like it is.’

The controversy comes after Netflix introduced a new algorithm that provides ‘personalised images’ to its 137 million subscribers around the world.

Multiple images are now generated for each and every title to cater towards what Netflix believes a specific user may be most interested in clicking on.

Like father is presented with black actors Leonard Ouzts and Blaire Brook as the stars instead of Kristen Bell (right)

Broadcast analyst Tim Harrington said: ‘Some users are offered artwork for Lewis with black actors despite both leads and almost the entire cast being white. Netflix knows a lot about you, perhaps even race.’

Netflix denied any wrongdoing. A spokesman said: ‘We don’t ask members for their race, gender or ethnicity so we cannot use this information to personalise their individual Netflix experience.

'The only information we use is a member’s viewing history.’