"Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs" is a Snow White retelling which follows the quest of seven princes to obtain the red shoes of a young woman in order to transform them back into their true selves. This movie was supposed to target body shaming and promote body positivity. However, this was not the case.
Where did the uproar start?
Model Tess Holiday happened across an advertisement for the film and quickly tweeted out her take on the picture and the statement made to draw viewers in. It states “What if Snow White was no longer beautiful and the 7 dwarfs not so short?” Snow white is depicted as overweight.
Holiday questioned the message that fat does not equal beautiful, and this comment rapidly became viral.
How did this get approved by an entire marketing team? Why is it okay to tell young kids being fat = ugly? 🤔😏@ChloeGMoretz pic.twitter.com/PVhgwluGTM
— Tess Holliday 🥀 (@Tess_Holliday) May 30, 2017
With a film that is supposed to celebrate the diversity of bodies and beauty, especially one that is geared toward a younger audience, it is incredibly important to be wary of the potential misinterpretation that could be born of advertising. The trailer for the movie is just as potentially harmful as the promotional content that Holiday found.
It features leering dwarfs watching the young woman undress.
When her magical red shoes fall to the ground, her legs are not thin like they were when the shoes were on. The reaction of the two dwarfs hiding and watching is that of surprise and disgust.
This is not the message society should promote to young people. Since the incarnation and the publicizing of the trailer, there has been uproar across several social media outlets.
How did this slip pass the publicity team?
Chloe Grace Mortez, who lent her voice to the main character, claims that the campaign had not been run by her or her team before it was released to the public. On Twitter she said she is “just as appalled and angry as everyone else.”
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
She goes on to say that the film itself it beautiful.
Mortez reveals that she got into the project because the message of the movie resonated with her. She still encourages people to go see it. After seeing this, even with Mortez backing the film, it’s likely that parents will still be wary before bringing their children to see it.
One of the film’s producers, Sujin Hwang, made a statement apologizing and retracting the campaign. The movie is scheduled for a 2018 debut. Hopefully the marketing team will discover a way in which to get across their supposedly body-positive and body-accepting message, and not construct media campaigns that seem to be more detrimental than uplifting.
