A skinny new version of Minnie Mouse will be displayed in a Barneys New York Electric Holiday campaign. The advertisement includes a three minute moving art video.
Minnie mouse and other Disney characters are shown in a dream like atmosphere sequence in Paris, France during fashion week. Minnie walks the runway with Daisy Duck and Goofy in new designer clothes.
Instead of the traditional Minnie Mouse, we see an extremely skinny, tall, model like version of the cute Disney character we are familiar with. After walking the runway, Minnie Mouse wakes up in the new designer dress as her normal self.
In the ad, he Disney characters that we have grown up with suddenly looked different. The beloved characters are being seen by millions of children daily.
“I watched shows with Mickey Mouse and Minnie when I was little and I thought that they were cute. I liked them,” freshman Darian Hittle said.
Barneys said that the traditional Disney characters would not look right on the high fashion runway. So they changed them to make them more like the unhealthy image of a model.
“They are saying being skinny is better than being healthy and yourself. It’s sad. We grew up with Minnie looking cute and in this she is not,” senior Nate McBride said.
The changed characters are not sending the right message to girls about body image, especially today. Eight million Americans suffer some form of a serious eating disorder and 10% of women in college have a clinical eating disorder.
“The ad tells girls in society to try to be something they aren’t. It says to try and be something that they see on TV. Girls should be confident in who they are, whether they are skinny or not so skinny. They shouldn’t change themselves,” sophomore Gabby Wilson said.