Fairy Tale Advertising: Clinica Dempere

Wow, this is one of the most disturbing ad campaigns in a while. And the media is jumping on it for that reason. I imagine Disney will try, also, since they are very protective of their characters and this was certainly not sanctioned by the Mouse House. I'm sure Ariel's likeness was carefully vetted by a legal team, but yikes, there is no doubt that Disney's Little Mermaid is invoked in all our minds.

From The Little Mermaid gets a little nip and tuck by Danielle Cox:

A plastic surgery center in Venezuela thought Ariel needed some work and decided she should go under the knife.

Clinica Dempere is taking fairy tale characters and making some major appearance changes for advertising purposes. Their campaign tag, 'We Make Fairy Tales Come True,' features the innocent before and not so innocent after pictures of the characters.

The Evil Witch also has major work done. After years of having an old face with the trademark pointy, witch nose, she comes out as a young, sexy vixen, with a perfect nose. There is no sexual discrimination in their campaign, the Frog Prince is part of their makeovers. He goes in as a frog and comes out as stunning prince....which is similar to the fairy tale, but the story doesn't involve the nip and tuck.

The Little Mermaid may be the most shocking of all of the makeovers. Ariel goes in as a sweet, young, fresh faced, mermaid princess and comes out as sexy, busty, older woman. She also looks as if she has had botox injected into her lips and chiseled cheek bones. All innocence is gone.

I am disturbed by the sexualization of Ariel, of course, but that has become rather standard by artists around the web. I find the surgery tables in the ads to be even more disturbing, invoking images of Dr. Frankenstein in my mind. The characters' desperation to get there and the joy after the procedure. Wow. And the Frog Prince one is even more confusing since the kissed frog isn't transformed but requires surgery. That is even more disturbing that the Grimms version when he thrown against the wall. At least the witch is more generic in nature.