We’re inundated with a constant stream of content from all angles these days, and the law of averages says that a majority of it is going to be crap. But sometimes I’ll see something so baffling, it makes me stop and think about the dozens of meetings that must have taken place before this thing reached audiences, and I’ll wonder how the hell an idea so terrible was ever given approval.
The latest example: the godawful marketing campaign for a new animated movie called Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs, which is so bad it’s drawn the ire of the movie’s star, Chloë Grace Moretz. Think about that. How bad does it have to be for the film’s star to put the marketing team on blast? Find out below.
Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs, which hails from a South Korean company called Locus, sounds like it has a positive message. Here’s the synopsis:
A normal girl born into extraordinary circumstances, she’s a princess who doesn’t fit into the celebrity world of princesses — or their dress size. She wants to stay true to herself, but Fairy Tale Island is all about looks, so it makes it hard not to want to be like the others. In her quest to find her lost father, she learns not only to accept herself, but celebrate who she is inside and out.
So far, so good. But take a look at a poster that was up outside the Cannes Film Festival last week:
This Chloe Moretz cartoon also seems, uh, questionable pic.twitter.com/93ieRc9JnQ
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 25, 2017
Right off the bat, this ad is guilty of body shaming and flat-out saying that a larger Snow White is no longer beautiful. Which, come on guys, it’s 2017. You should know better by now. But things go from bad to worse when you watch the trailer:
Why would any company think it’s okay to feature two leering dwarfs who look like they’re seconds away from jerking off as Snow White takes her clothes off? And secondarily, why the hell would Snow White seductively remove items of clothing if she thinks she’s alone in her room? This is baffling on so many fronts.
As you can imagine, Moretz wasn’t thrilled to see this shit.
I have now fully reviewed the mkting for Red Shoes, I am just as appalled and angry as everyone else, this wasn't approved by me or my team
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) May 31, 2017
Pls know I have let the producers of the film know. I lent my voice to a beautiful script that I hope you will all see in its entirety https://t.co/IOIXYZTc3g
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) May 31, 2017
The actual story is powerful for young women and resonated with me. I am sorry for the offense that was beyond my creative control https://t.co/HZP2ydPCAX
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) May 31, 2017
One of the film’s producers, Sujin Hwang, told Entertainment Weekly that the marketing campaign has been “terminated,” and offered an apology:
“Our film, a family comedy, carries a message designed to challenge social prejudices related to standards of physical beauty in society by emphasizing the importance of inner beauty. We appreciate and are grateful for the constructive criticism of those who brought this to our attention. We sincerely regret any embarrassment or dissatisfaction this mistaken advertising has caused to any of the individual artists or companies involved with the production or future distribution of our film, none of whom had any involvement with creating or approving the now discontinued advertising campaign.”
Moretz’s comments, this statement, and the official synopsis all make it seem as if the movie contains a positive message about appearances for young women, but if that’s true, this has to be one of the biggest cases of whiplash between a marketing campaign and the final product I can think of. Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs doesn’t have US distribution yet for obvious reasons.
The post Chloë Grace Moretz Trashes Awful Marketing Campaign For Her Own Movie appeared first on /Film.
