You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …
The Product:
Public Service Announcement
The Promotion:
The Pitch:
Don’t make your children feel ashamed of their bodies … also, I guess don’t leave them to die in witch-infested forests.
There’s a problem that arises when people use a fantasy story to deliver a message about some real world social problem. While such a thing can be done well, often you’ll find the writers delivering a message that’s very true and apt for the real world, but doesn’t work within the context of the fantastical world they’ve created.
Like, most of us here are big nerds, so I’m sure you’re familiar with the X-Men Problem: Marvel’s mutants and the persecution they face are meant to be a stand in for real world minority groups … except many mutants have powers that are so inherently dangerous, otherwise progressive and tolerant fans will go, “Humans are right to fear mutants! There absolutely should be a government registry to keep a watch on them!”
That’s the sort of feeling I have about this ad. I agree with the message it’s delivering, about how even well-meaning statements can encourage eating disorders in children. But in the context of Hansel & Gretel …
I mean, ignore all prior knowledge of the fairy tale for a moment. Even just by what’s shown in this ad, the two kids are engaging in absurd, cartoonish acts of gluttony, gobbling down pieces of candy as big as their heads. So having a voice in their head telling them they’re eating too much and need to stop … in this context, that’d actually be quite healthy and appropriate!
And if you put it in the context of the well-known Hansel & Gretel fairy tale, eating from the gingerbread house is what gets the two kids captured by a cannibalistic witch. Hansel & Gretel might have avoided a lot of trouble if only they’d had anorexia.
Again, the obvious intent of this PSA is good, but if you think through the logic of the story it presents, it seems like maybe the message should be, “Make sure you fat shame your sons just as much as your daughters – it’s the only way to keep both of them safe!”
Of course, if you’re the parents of Hansel & Gretel, you’re not going to care about your children’s well-being anyway – the inciting incident of the fairy tale is you abandoning them in the woods so you won’t have to feed ’em anymore. So I guess it’s all moot.