An ad placed by a plastic surgery office has sparked outcry for using a Disney character to spark a negative body image in the minds of young girls.
A plastic surgery center in Venezuela called Clinica Dempere has given Disney's red-headed mermaid a makeover. The ad shows Ariel fleeing from the evil Ursula and heading straight for an operating table where she is given more than just a human pair of legs.
The newly done up Ariel reveals the mermaid with a human pair of legs that she shows off with a pair of black stilettos. In addition it all appears that the Disney character's lips have been altered and she has also undergone a breast augmentation.
A number of women reacted to the ad, stating that it was sending across the wrong message to impressionable young girls who are too young to be thinking about body image. Why does it matter? some asked.
"It matters that the artist drew her skinnier, her breasts bigger, her face differently and mostly, to address the elephant in the room that the artist drew this plastic surgery advertisement using a child's beloved, recognizable movie character," CreativeArtsLove wrote. "This is targeted at children, specifically young girls and preteens."
"It distorts the story of the little mermaid and changes the theme from "accept yourself and others for what they look like naturally" to "get plastic surgery to make your dreams come true," the user added.
The truth may not be far off either. In a survey conducted by the American Society for Plastic Surgeons, the number of girls under 18 who got cosmetic surgery jumped to 80,896 in 2004, compared to 13,314 in 1992. In a Dove survey about body image, 92 percent of teen girls admitted that they would want to change something about themselves physically. Of those girls, one fourth of them believed said they were considering plastic surgery.
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