Creepy, Borderline-NSFW Disney Chinese Underwear Ad
May 1, 2008
Slate.com has an interesting article about a the billboard above, spotted recently in Beijing, which came to mind after the reporter had been reading about the Miley Cyrus controversy.
It is legitimately difficult for a company as big as Disney to keep track of all its subcontractors. Then again, Disney has learned the hard way the importance of keeping track: Disney’s response to the billboard recalls its response to exposés of labor conditions in the factories of its Chinese licensees’, where subcontractors were actually breaking local wage, health, and safety laws. Here, of course, it’s rules of taste and propriety that are involved, and the ad may play differently to a local audience than it did to me and [Disney consumer-products division spokesman Gary] Foster. The age of consent in China is 14, compared with 18 in Disney’s home state of California. “I don’t want to make excuses for them at all because it is not anything that we would ever approve, but in other parts of the world this is not unusual at all,” Foster said. “In fact, in Europe, they have similar type of taste, if you will. Here in China that’s not unusual at all, but it’s not usual for the Disney brand.”
Entry Filed under: Beijing, Disney, Disney Consumer Products, Marketing, Mickey Mouse, Miley Cyrus. .
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1.
sambycat | May 2, 2008 at 3:47 pm
yes i will give you a big old “ew” on that. as to miley cyrus, i call BS on the whole thing. i agree the photos are vaguely creepy - but the one with her dad? yuck thats icky. if her back were just not bare, i think it would be different BUT her “myspace” pics or whatever that when around like a month ago - one where she’s showing her bra or something??- are WAY more problematic to me, but didn’t seem to get the same attention and “shock”…
now i don’t have kids and i get the whole over sexualization of tweens (and younger) but in her defense i will say i don’t think it is unusual that teens or tweens want to be “pretty” or “sexy”. sadly, the culture comtinues to spiral downward in terms of what that means and the internet and cellphones allow all of us to indulge “playing model” or whatever that means. it still comes down to the folks and the handlers. and i don’t see how they can vacate that responsibility…
2.
Catnip | May 5, 2008 at 7:15 pm
With images like this circulating, it makes me wonder. Is Walt Disney rolling over in his grave right now or what? The Miley Cyrus fiasco, which to me personally wasn’t that big of a deal in the first place, Venessa Hudgens nude photos, where she is full frontal! That IS a big deal! Disney alums, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera sexing it up in the worst way! And now uderage “models” posing in their underwear for an officially LICENSED Disney product! Walt Disney is turning out to be the biggest PIMP in the world!
For God’s sakes, where are those girls’ parents???
3.
john | May 9, 2008 at 7:00 am
i love the ‘In fact, in Europe, they have similar type of taste’ - bullshit. Utter bullshit. Need to get our of your SUV once in a long while and get on a plane and have a look around.
Tout the rhetoric without facts.
4.
Marina | August 1, 2008 at 3:18 am
This article reminds me of what me teacher said. “In Europe, people think that violence is worst then sex. In the U.S., sex is worst then violence.” I guess that violence is also worst then sex in China too.
5.
Miley Cyrus Fan | August 1, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Creepy is definitely the word. Creepy, and eerie, and makes you ponder what sortof twisted marketing campaign thought this up? You’d think that an executive with Disney, somewhere, would have seen this and had a mild stroke prior to giving it full approval.