General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs Disney's Princess Candy Packaging Insensitive?
Remember two and half years ago or so when Disney released "The Princess and The Frog"? It starred the company's very first black princess, Tiana, and it was relatively successful despite the controversy over the princess's original name and occupation. (They were all set to name her Maddy and have her working as a maid. People weren't stoked, so Disney changed her name to Tiana and made her a waitress.)
Well Disney recently made a bold move and decided to have Princess Tiana grace the packaging for their watermelon flavored Dig n' Dips candy. On the other side -- Princess Aurora is shilling away for the vanilla flavor.
Clutch magazine has called this packaging "sloppy," and went on to say, "As usual, it's hard to believe that anyone would intentionally make this kind of insensitive mistake, but pairing the white girl with vanilla and the black girl with watermelon should have set off an alarm in someone's mind."
Sociological Images said "In light of this history, as well as the ongoing racism, the product below -- a Valentine's Day candy that pairs two Disney princesses -- is rather, let's say, insensitive. The White Cinderella character decorates the vanilla flavored side; the Black Tiana character decorates the watermelon flavored side. Just... wow."
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/2012/03/disney_makes_a_tiny_mistake_wi.php
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)If it's rotating, then I would say this is merely coincidental. But if every Vanilla/Watermelon combo pack features these princesses, then it's not so coincidental, insensitive at best, flamingly racist at worst.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)Let's hope it's a rotating princess/flavor match...
Quantess
(27,630 posts)There are no racial depictions, just the names of the flavors. It's all artifical flavoring, anyway.
MrCoffee
(24,159 posts)That just sounds gross. Vanilla seems like a dumb choice for this candy.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Put them both in polo necks and and take the pictures from the back. They way you wont know whether theyre black, white, male or female.
Those were the lengths which were necessary to appease some groups who were concerned about a car maintenance training poster here in the UK back in the eighties.
LeftinOH
(5,357 posts)'cause its gross.