Cinderella Is UK's Favorite Fairy Tale and Rewriting Endings

Okay, I want to live in the UK this week. When I found this article, Sky Broadband Looking for Happily Ever After With Sophie Ellis-Bextor on Twitter, I had to learn more. First from the article:

Sky Broadband has today launched its 'Happily Ever After' Twitter campaign, with the help of pop princess Sophie Ellis-Bextor, to challenge the nation to come up with new "happily ever after" endings to some of the country's favourite fairy tales... in 140 characters or fewer.

Sophie will be asking everyone to send in their alternative endings via Twitter or the competition website at http://www.sky.com/happilyeverafter. For inspiration, Sophie will be Tweeting her own alternative endings over the next few weeks and will personally choose the winning entrant.

This comes on the same day that a Sky Broadband survey revealed that Cinderella has been voted the nation's favourite fairytale of all time. The classic folk story which sees a downtrodden young woman battle against adversity to become an elegant Princess, beat other classics like Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty to claim top spot.

So then I followed up by going to the Sky Broadband page.  Oh, lots of goodies there!  And I have no idea who Sophie Ellis-Bextor is either.  Or I didn't before today.

Here's some stats from Sky Broadband:

Cinderella voted the nations favourite fairytale

7 out of 10 parents read fairytales to their children

6 out of 10 parents believe fairytales help explain life’s morals

Two thirds of parents say fairytales help develop a child’s imagination

Eleven is deemed too old to enjoy a fairytale

All of that makes me happy except for the last one. No one is too old for fairy tales!  But I won't criticize too much since I once thought the same--when I was eleven myself.

And here's the contest description:

Ever wondered what happened to Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Snow White once the book closed on them? Did they actually live ‘Happily Ever After’, did Snow White lose contact with the dwarves and is Rapunzel the face and hair for a hair straightening firm?

In our search for the greatest fairytale of all time and just because it's fun, Sky Broadband and Sophie Ellis Bextor have teamed up to give the magical world of fairytales new life. Tell us on this site, Twitter (using the hashtag ‘#HEA’) or Facebook (in no more than 140 characters) what happened next in your favourite fairytale plus you could win a fairytale trip worth £2,000 and Sky TV and Sky Broadband Unlimited free for a year.

Sophie will be providing inspirational fairytale tweets and status updates over the next 3 weeks. If you want Rumplestilskin, The Three Little Pigs, Little Mermaid and Chicken Licken to live on forever join in and Twitter, Happily Ever After.

Now even if you don't live in the Sky region, you can watch along on Twitter and read the entries there or the other social media options. They are feeding into the site linked above, too.

What fun!