Friday, November 30, 2007

Disney, Penney, and a Girl's "Real Love"


My piece on the Disney movie "Enchanted" is now up over at the Women's Media Center. Here's a little addendum to that piece, to leave with you with this weekend:

Everyone's singing the praises of Amy Adams, who plays the fluttery protagonist, Giselle. I loved her performance in Junebug (where, as Roger Ebert reminds us, she tells her snake of a husband: "God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.") And while Adams herself is entirely enchanting in Enchanted, truth be told, what enchanted me more was the two-minute JC Penney commercial from Saatchi & Saatchi that ran just before the film.

The Penney spot is called “Aviator.” John Lennon’s “Real Love” plays in the background as a bespectacled, determined little girl gets the ultimate revenge on the neighborhood bullies by transforming herself from local outcast to local hero by using her imagination and ingenuity. As AdWeek aptly describes it, the spot opens with her quietly drawing a picture about traveling to the North Pole on her porch when the boys of the 'hood pelt her with water balloons. She runs inside to dry her picture with a blow dryer and then begins on a construction project. Riding her Big Wheel back and forth from a neighbor who supplies her with materials, she begins to build her "secret" project. The boys are soon intrigued and serve as her bodyguards. When she is finally ready to debut her creation, the entire neighborhood has gathered for the unveiling. She's built a rocket-like "North Pole Voyager." And the boys end up saluting her. The spot ends with the on-screen tagline, "Today's the day to believe." Ok, so it’s a gosh darn Christmas ad from JC Penney. But I'm telling you, it made me teary. See for yourself, above.

4 comments:

Alison Piepmeier said...

Damn. Biffle and I got teary, too.

Deborah Siegel said...

I know--crazy amazing, right?! xo

Anonymous said...

Ugh. This truly is disgusting, particularly because it is indeed a beautiful, haunting version of the song at that. It has such a personal quality to it, and it just feels wrong listening to something he recorded as a demo (as a gift for Yoko, I believe), not really intended for pop consumption on a commercial. I just think of how this flies in the face of what John Lennon believed and sang about. It's hard to say what Mr. Lennon would be up to these days if he hadn't died so early in his life, but I highly doubt he'd be shilling for corporate America.

ownsmitjh said...

I was very impressed by this post, this site has always been pleasant news. Thank you very much for such an interesting post. Keep working, great job! Now it's time to get car services Scottsdale AZ for more information.