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Carrie
Unregistered User
(12/6/00 7:08:29 am)
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fairy tales used in advertising
Hello all. I saw an ad the other day in Vanity Fair that played on Little Red Riding Hood. Has anyone seen any other topics used as "hooks" in modern advertising? Just curious.
Carrie
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Eirenical
Registered User
(12/6/00 9:51:45 am)
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MasterCard
There's one I've seen several times in the last couple of months. You've probably seen it, too. It's a television ad for MasterCard (I think): one of those "priceless" ads. Someone please correct me if you can--I know I'm messing up some of the details...
You see a woman with long, curly red hair running down a street. She's carrying a bucket and a broom, and wearing a light blue, floaty-looking dress that is, to my taste, quite ugly. In any case, the bucket and the broom look very out of place. Voice-over/text something along the lines of: "Dress, $XXX. Glass slippers: $XXX. Flowers for Fairy Godmother, $XXX. Being on time to meet Prince Charming at the ball: Priceless. For everything else there's MasterCard." The girl goes into the Ballroom Diner, where we see a smiling Prince Charming. End commercial.
I remember this commercial pretty clearly because there's something about it that always seems to strike the wrong cord, but I don't know what it is. There is certainly something appealing about the idea of Cinderella going deep into debt in her efforts to snare the prince. I'd almost like to draw moral parallels here (think Rumplestiltskin.) In most of the traditional tales its Cinderella's goodness and innocence that allow both her imprisonment and her escape. Now there's another possible connection to the Bluebeard/Mr. Fox/Bird thread and its heroine.
But I am rambling here and reading an awful lot into a simple MasterCard commercial. I shouldn't try to write coherent posts while I'm at work.
Eirenical
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Heidi
Unregistered User
(12/6/00 11:19:44 am)
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Cinderella Advertising
Oh, I saw another Cinderella magazine ad within the past few months and I can't remember what it was for, perhaps a car or shoes. I know it was concerning the glass slipper and now I can't remember. It was on the back cover of a major mag because John and I were commenting on it in the grocery store check out line, perhaps People. Hopefully it will come back to me.
The Mastercard commercial is certainly the most predominant right now. And something bothers me about it, too, but I am not sure what. I hadn't even thought about Cinderella going into debt! Something about the details not matching very well, such as cleaning a chimney and an overnight package to your Fairy Godmother. But it is certainly everywhere right now. Now I will want to see it again and won't be able to find it...
But I know it similar to this:
Broom and mop (clean chimney) $???
Repair of glass slippers (loose heel) $9
Overnight package to Fairy Godmother $???
John always looks at me and grins when it comes on the television.
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Carrie
Unregistered User
(12/6/00 5:57:35 pm)
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tv
For the first time in my life I'm regretting the fact that I never watch TV -- don't even have one. *sigh*
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Gregor9
Registered User
(12/7/00 5:38:30 am)
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Stan Freeberg and Fairy Tales
If you want to compile a list of advertising that has used fairy tale motifs, I think you have to start with Stan Freeberg, one of the geniuses of the art (and of humor in general).
A retrospective collection of his material was released on CDs about two years back. You might find it in a library if you wanted to shuffle through all the pieces.
He also made particular use of "Little Red Riding Hood", and the "St. George & the Dragon" story, which he folded into a Dragnet format.
Most of his work was done for radio, although the collection includes a video of some of the best TV commercials he created.
Carrie, you won't even need a TV.
GF
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(12/7/00 9:05:27 am)
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Re: Stan Freeberg and Fairy Tales
Ah, another Stan Freeberg fan!
http://home.teclink.net/~brp1
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Meagan
Unregistered User
(1/2/01 10:46:39 am)
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Fairy Tale Advertising
I have two current favorites: the Chanel #5 commercial with the lovely model dressed like little red ridinghood who tells the wolf to stay behind.
The other I saw last night for the first time...Kim Catrall (who plays Samantha the Slut on Sex and the City) goes into the Chicago Bears' locker room. She picks up coke--ugh, too much sugar. She picks up a diet coke--ugh, too diety. She picks up a pepsi one--ummm, just right. Then the "bears" come return to the locker room. Typical goldie locks responses--Someone's been drinking my coke. Someone's been drinking my diet coke. Someone drank all my pepsi one and she's still in my hot tub. Cute commercial (even though I'm a die hard diet coke devote) and plays up the sexual subtext of Goldie locks and the three bears quite well.
M
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Heidi
Unregistered User
(1/10/01 9:25:09 am)
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Another one...
I hadn't seen this one in a long time, but it is apparently still playing during daytime television. The commercial is for "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and centers on the Sleeping Beauty/Snow White fairy tale. The prince wakes Beauty up with a piece of heavily buttered toast. A dwarf runs around commenting on the action thus confusing the tale a little. There is also a long line of princes waiting for their turn to wake up Beauty.
It is awfully hokey, but that is advertising all too often.
I finally saw the Goldie and the Bears commercial, too.
Yes, I have been watching too much television recently!
Heidi
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Gregor9
Registered User
(1/10/01 10:40:42 am)
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Bears
There is an ad in the latest "Mother Jones" and perhaps a few other magazines, promoting the notion of protecting bears. It's a cartoon sketch of Goldilocks caught eating porridge...by three lizards--the point being that the story's just not the same without bears. It's one of the better uses I've seen made of fairy tales in ads.
GF
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Eirenical
Registered User
(1/29/01 1:12:52 pm)
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New Charles Schwab ad
This one premiered during the super bowl, and I caught most of it. It was quite good, and the ending was very unexpected. If you missed this one, I'd keep an eye out for it.
I'm going to use someone else's description (from Jane Weaver's
article on MSNBC, super bowl ads go for laughs: www.msnbc.com/news/522097...yredir.asp
)
"In fact, the surest “water cooler” commercial, the one
people are most likely to talk about on Monday morning,
actually came just before kickoff. A Charles Schwab
60-second spot spun a modern twist on the fairy tale. In
voice-over, an unseen mother (with a veddy familiar, veddy
proper British accent) tells her daughter a story about a
beautiful girl who marries a handsome prince. But just in
case the marriage doesn’t work out, the mother cautions her
daughter, “you need to know the difference between P/E
ratio and dividend yield.” At that moment, the camera pans
to reveal Sarah Ferguson, ex-wife of England’s Prince
Andrew, best known to American audiences as the Weight
Watchers spokeswoman. It’s a sly, unexpected ending to an
ad with a strong message to young women."
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Kerrie
Registered User
(1/31/01 5:25:50 pm)
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Bears...
I finally saw the tail end of
the Goldie and the Bears commercial too- while flipping channels
this past weekend, about a hundred times during the pre-Superbowl
obsession. (Don't get much for other channels.) Did they show it
enough times? I miss TV, I feel left out.
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(2/23/01 1:13:09 pm)
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Wyndham Suites
I don't know if this one is new or old, but Wyndham Suites has a Cinderella commercial that I saw during "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" (based on Karen Cushman's children's book) that aired this past Sunday.
The commercial starts with a maid wrapping a large pumpkin in cellophane a la a fruit basket type gift. Then she places on a nightstand a book with a title like "Dealing With Sibling Rivalry." Next we see her place two candies in the shape of white mice on the pillow. Finally, the scene moves to outside the hotel where a carriage is pulling up with a foot descending from it wearing a glass slipper. At this point the narrator explains that at Wyndham they go the extra mile to take care of your special needs when you stay there.
That's all I remember about it. It was a fluke that I even saw it.
Heidi
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