You may have thought The Walt Disney Company was above pulling a John Boyega “hide the black actor” trick again. You were wrong.
The exceedingly virtuous and utterly benevolent Walt Disney Company is back at the hypocrisy game again. Whereas the company will die on the hill of teaching children in preschool about bedroom issues, if you so much as think they’re going to put a person of African descent on a Chinese poster in a way that shows their skin tone… think again!
For years and years, the company was roundly mocked, ridiculed, decried and condemned for purposefully shrinking the image of John Boyega on their Star Wars Force Awakens poster in China. Whereas he was a prominent member of the cast, and justly featured just as prominently on all major posters around the world… in China, Boyega’s Flinn was barely even visible. So surely Disney learned their lesson, right? Surely the company that preaches DEI and ESG issues, has BLM protests and anti-police messaging in Disney+ shows for children… surely they would never do that sort of thing again.
Oh but they would.
In the Chinese IMAX poster for The Little Mermaid, notice how strong blue hues, a stripped out natural color palette, and careful lighting are used to hide the protagonist’s race from Chinese moviegoers. Notice how the signature hair of this new Ariel is hidden behind her. Pay attention to how far away she is in this poster. It’s an impressive feat to John Boyega a character… again… when she’s literally the only human on the image.
It’s not just the IMAX image though.
The main poster for the Chinese theaters is equally tricky. Again, the image is wrapped in blues, this time with Ariel’s back turned to the audience. By doing so, the artists behind this one are able to make her dark skin color seem to be simply part of the shadows. Meanwhile, her face is brightly lit at just the right way to again hide her race.
It’s gross.
And lest you think this is just the normal way to market The Little Mermaid, here’s the poster everywhere else:
Can we just all admit now that Disney has become a horrible, hypocritical corporation with not a single scruple found inside it?
I think we can.
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