For my research paper I decided to tackle the subject of fairy tales elements used in
advertising.
Specifically, looking at the ways essential female characters, elements and themes from
fairy tale films have been utilized in the marketing campaigns by the beauty industry. The
beauty industry have taken advantage of the significant impact that Disney’s adaptations
of fairy tales might have on the female population, mainly children, in order to influence
their definition of beauty.
Being a part of a young female population that grew up watching fairy tale films with
females as the beautiful protagonists or the devious villains, it is safe to say that some of
us were deeply inspired by these essential characters. When thinking about fairy tales and
advertising, it immediately reminded me of the marketing campaigns that have used
these female characters as basis for the development and advertisement of cosmetic
products.
In my research into the representation of female fairy tale characters some of the primary
resources includes a marketing campaign of a collaboration between MAC Cosmetics
and Disney’s live action Aladdin. As well as an advertisement done by the cosmetic brand
ColourPop who promoted some of there make up by naming the collections, the Princess
Collection and the Disney’s Villain’s set.
Both of these advertisements consisted of prominent images of females wearing very
extreme makeup looks, essentially resembling a princess in order to promote their
products. One campaign even had a prominent image of Princess Jasmine from Disney’s
live action Aladdin. It just goes to show what definition of beautiful that these brands are
try to push towards the population.
Some secondary sources that have helped guide my research are articles that have been
published by online magazines such Forbes and Glamour. In an article entitled “The
Role of Fairytale in Modern Beauty Ideals” in Affinity Magazine, the article describes
that big budget movie remakes of classic tales such as Beauty and the Beast and
Cinderella, consist of stories with a strong emphasis on female beauty are likely to
survive into the modern era.
Other secondary sources that contributed to my research includes scholarly journals, The
Persuasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tales
and The Oxford Companion Tales.
An idea that these resources pointed out was that Disney’s adaptations of fairy tales
convey messages about the importance of feminine beauty not only by making beauty
prominent in stories but also demonstrating how beauty get its rewards.
Furthermore, the sources talked about the feminine beauty ideal - which was described as
a socially constructed notion that physical attractiveness is one of woman’s most
important asset. It is almost as if these fairy tale films push the younger audience towards
a certain standard of beauty as beauty or the pursuit of it occupies a main role in woman’s
lives.
Secondly, I learned that commercial advertising on television relies frequently on the
audience’s recognition of traditional characters - such as the figures of Sleeping Beauty,
Cinderella. However there is also a portion of the population that don’t fall into the
marketing manipulation because they believe that fairy tales have a very limited view of
beauty when it comes to the character.
Basic fairy tale elements like magic, transformation and happy endings lend themselves
perfectly to the advertiser’s pitch that the featured product will miraculously change the
viewer’s life for the better. Happy endings lead to the conclusion that the product must be
equally wonderful.
Therefore it is safe to say that all of these elements of fairy tales such as princesses and
magic go beyond just the story or films, it reaches the audience in so may different ways,
one being in advertisements.