Oct
18
2009
Beer Company Creates “Ho White” Ad
Posted by DDOCS in Marketing, WTF?, tags: Crazy Ads, Food, Laws, Marketing, Media, StupidityHere’s an amazingly stupid ad campaign. It’s from Jameson Brewery in Australia. And, yes, that’s “Ho White” and her seven dwarfs, which have names like Randy and Filthy. [See the ad in a larger size here, including Ho White's cleavage.]
Did the beer company really think Disney would let this one slip by? {shakes head} Well, the Mouse House stopped this campaign in its tracks.
[Thanks, AdFreak!]


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I was hoping to heap scorn upon Disney for their typically overzealous pursuit of copyright control over the public domain.
Snow White is a European fairy tale that could date back as far as the 1500s. The Brothers Grimm published what is likely the most widely known version, including the seven dwarves, around 1850.
The Jamieson Brewery may have done this just for the sensationalism but, unfortunately, they didn’t think this one through. If they had, they would have been able to garner the same attention, and more, by probably defeating Disney in court. This should have been possible by rendering the dwarves in a neutral fashion. Simple smiles all around would probably have been enough.
Instead, they rendered the dwarves with characatures that clearly convey the personality/names invented by Disney. The Brothers Grimm version had no such personalities, so Jamieson can’t claim the campaign was purely modeled after the public domain source.
One never knows how judges will swing, or how often the Disney version of Tubal Cain is uttered in chambers. Assuming all things just and equal, however, this was a missed opportunity for Jamieson.