Advertising: SoyJoy and Princesses

Advertising Agency: Dentsu Indonesia
Creative Director: Tashiaki Gomi
Art Director: Tommy Hartanto
Agency Producer: Alda Octaviani
Production Company: Luscious International
Director: Tina Bull
Executive Producer: Andrew Morris
Producer: Velly Sinay
Published: August 2010

Via Ads of the World and YouTube. These are more obviously riffs on the Disney fairy tale princesses, but perhaps that makes them even more interesting?

The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess! by Helen Pilinovsky

Fantasy Magazine also published an article last month, The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess! by Helen Pilinovsky. Helen has been writing about fairy tales for years now and I always enjoy her work. She has also been co-editor of Cabinet des Fées.

Here's the first paragraph introduction to entice you:

Princess. These days, it’s practically an epithet, but when the fairy tale was at its zenith, there was a clear correlation between hereditary rank and innate worth. Somehow, despite the shift in our values, there’s a certain segment of the population that is still held by the spell of the fairy tale princess. It’s not the fans of fairy tale retellings—who tend to subvert the princess—but little girls and their mothers, a demographic targeted by Disney. Between the two extremes, the princess occupies an uneasy territory between traditional values, progress, and reclamation. From word-of-mouth storytelling to printed texts to cinematic adaptations, the princess has been defined and redefined in remarkable ways.

  

PS: I know an image of Shrek Princesses was an odd choice to illustrate this post, but when I used "princesses" in Google images for inspiration, this was one of the few images that wasn't of a Disney princess or princesses. How many people in our cultures now associate the term with Disney at first thought? The Shrek princesses made me happy after all that Disney overload...

Enough with the princess nonsense!

Here's a new article bemoaning the "princess" approach to love and relationships in popular culture: Enough with the princess nonsense! by John DeVore. I winced slightly through the first half and then read this:

Like most fairy tales, "The Frog Prince" is a mordant little morality tale that cautiously suggests a lady needn't be so choosy when picking a suitor. Even the more sanitized, and Americanized, versions of "The Frog Prince" offer this moral: personality counts! Allow yourself to be charmed by a talking frog and you'll be rewarded. But first, you should be happy with only a talking frog. In fact, you should be so lucky to kiss him.

Well, that was a little more like it. Fairy tales aren't being attacked in the article, but the attitude that is attributed to them by parts of popular culture. That was a relief. So read and think, perhaps have fun with it. And save the bookmark for December when Disney's Princess and the Frog comes out. Cause this article came out about five months too soon.

And may I compliment John DeVore on actually doing his research. This is one of the first pop culture articles in a while (anything for The Frisky has to fall into that category) that accurately referenced fairy tales and their history. That was nice and since I agree more than disagree with the sentiment, I'm even more impressed!

After all, traditional fairy tales are not just the Disney versions with refrains of "Some Day My Prince Will Come." And even that one is older Disney, dare I even say the original Disney, not the Disney of this century, to be fair to Disney who has helped to keep the genre alive. Remember that any publicity is good publicity.

And, since you're here reading, I consider princess culture to be more based on the desire to feel cherished and special by someone or a few someones. Yes, there's the money-grubbing, lineage caring kind, but most little girls (and big ones) are just wanting to feel wanted, desired, cherished, that they matter to someone. Not necessarily everyone, just someone. That's not a bad thing. It's twisted sometimes into something rather unattractive, I admit, but most women I know have a mostly healthy perspective on it all. And they use fairy tale metaphors to convey it the way men use sports metaphors. It's part of the common experience.

The real fairy tale to me is that we grow up and are bombarded with imagery of what we should look like (airbrushed supermodels), what we should do (executives who also have a clean house with young children), etc. and never feel like we can measure up again if we don't have that love for ourselves and perhaps some extra from a few special people to help us overcome the message that we will never be perfect enough or everything to everyone.

All that is said by someone who was once a young girl much more interested in books and building houses with her blocks for her one Barbie than playing dress up or dolls. It's a tough world and we all need a little fantasy to survive it. It's when there's unhealthy or unrealistic expectations in real life that things get dangerous, but fairy tales aren't the culprits.

And in the end, I think DeVore's message is the same, actually a plea on behalf of the male gender. Real people have a hard time living up to the fantasy, so let's make sure the original message of the tales are remembered, not the newer ones maligned by the masses.

Hmmm...ye olde battle of the sexes...that wasn't supposed to sound rant like...not sure if it does...but I'll let it stand... and now back to the regularly scheduled blog. :)

Coming up: I'm gearing up for a week of book reviews next week after the admitted frivolity of nail polish and such the past few weeks. I'm going to be reviewing some of the new releases from the first half of 2009, so stay tuned if you've already exhausted your summer reading pile.

Fallen Princesses Project by Dina Goldstein

JPG Magazine has published online the images for Dina Goldstein's Fallen Princesses project. The images are provocative, especially since Goldstein mostly uses Disney's versions of fairy tale princesses which are arguably the most glossy and pervasive versions of fairy tale characters in modern times. This photo essay enters into the common debate over the suitability of fairy tales for children, as well as women's issues and fairy tales, two of the top five most popular topics on SurLaLune's Discussion Boards. They are so popular that I've devoted pages to them with books and links for reference: Children and Fairy Tales and Women and Fairy Tales.

Goldstein explains in her introduction that "these works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues."

I squirm over the choice of "realistic outcome." So many detractors of fairy tales tend to argue along the lines that life is never happy, always miserable, especially if one chooses to marry or seek out long term relationships. Yes, I'm writing in broad generalities and I firmly believe that life is hard and painful, but I also think that the pain is tempered with joy and happiness that is only made greater thanks to the contrast of opposite experiences. Traditional fairy tales tend to promote just that message, not perfectly, but in a much more realistic way, encouraging endurance and perseverance. Here's a summation of one of my basic philosophies: Happily ever after does not mean "without ever a conflict or hardship" but is an optimistic view of overcoming those hardships when they arise in the future, often with the companionship needed to make it easier.

I'm not criticizing Goldstein's work, mind you. I enjoyed it and want to share it, thus this post.

Back to the project. Some images are more poignant or hard hitting for me than others, but I've decided to let them speak for themselves instead of commenting on them individually.