The American distributor of The Sapphires DVD has apologised for causing offence with its choice of cover, and has offered to rethink the artwork for future editions of the film.

In a short statement, distributor Anchor Bay said it "regrets any unintentional upset caused by the upcoming US DVD release of The Sapphires".

It added that "new cover art is being considered for future replenishment orders".

The statement comes in the wake of a social-media campaign that has included blogs, a petition on change.org calling for the distributor to change its "sexist, racist" cover, and even tweets from star Chris O'Dowd decrying the choice of cover, saying "it's ridiculous, it's misleading, it's ill-judged, insensitive and everything the film wasn't".

The real-life Sapphires – the all-Aboriginal soul group on whom the film is loosely based – also weighed in, with a letter from the director of the Aboriginal health service that employs three of them asking the venerable National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the US to support the campaign for a rethink.

At issue was a design that elevated O'Dowd to central position while relegating the four indigenous actors in the film – Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell – to blue-toned supporting status.

Now, the campaigners appear to have had a win – of sorts.

"The US DVD cover was disgracefully insensitive," said Lucy Manne, who started the petition on change.org that has now attracted more than 13,000 signatories.

"The Sapphires is a wonderful film about four Aboriginal women battling against racism and sexism in the entertainment industry of the 1960s. That's why so many of us were disappointed to see a white-washed and gender-washed cover that reinforces the problems The Sapphires worked so hard to overcome."

The Australian producers of the film, Rosemary Blight and Kylie du Fresne, weighed in late on Tuesday with a statement of their own.

"The Sapphires has been a powerful instrument which recognises the talents and significant contributions made by indigenous Australians," they said.

"Our hope is that the USA DVD release of the film has the potential of getting this important story to an even wider audience.
"It's our wish that all marketing materials will reflect the important themes of the film and we thank the USA DVD distributor Anchor Bay for their recent statement and recognition of this issue."

But while Anchor Bay has delivered on the call to apologise, it has not changed its artwork for this week's US release of the DVD.

The promise to "consider" new artwork may amount to little more than a pyrrhic victory for campaigners, unless the DVD sells out.

Anchor Bay has not revealed how many copies of the DVD with the offending artwork it has in circulation.

And Ms Manne, for one, is not about to let up just yet. "I will be pursuing them to confirm their plans to produce a new cover for future shipments," she said.

twitter: @karlkwin