Ad Rant: The new Sun-Maid Girl's raisins are growing
Goodness, the raisins are growing mighty big in the sunny fields of California these days!
The execs at Sun-Maid are proud that their raisins contain "nothing but grapes and sunshine." But the new animated version of
the Sun-Maid Girl in the company's TV ads sports some decidedly unnatural (and perhaps surgically enhanced) additives as well.
Even though the picture on the Sun-Maid raisin snack box hasn't changed since 1970, the busty new animated version has undergone an extreme makeover. The grape-picking maiden now looks more like a Barbie Doll in Amish attire.
The Sun-Maid Girl with her raven-colored curls and red bonnet was based on Lorraine Collett Petersen, who was discovered, legend has it, drying her long curly locks in her backyard in Fresno. (How they discovered her in the backyard like that, fresh from washing her hair, we leave to your imagination.) Sun-Maid liked the image of Lorraine because it seemed to embody what their raisins were all about: simple and all-natural, a product of California's bounteous land and sunshine.
Looking at the bounteous new Sun-Maid Girl, "simple" and "all-natural" are not the first words that come to mind. Instead, I think "breast augmentation" and "fake." Nothing but grapes, sunshine ... and a surgeon's scalpel.
I also think "Julia Roberts." And when I look more closely at the bonnet, I start to think "Dr. Seuss." But I do not think that this creature sprang ready-made from the land and the sun.
This bosomy version of the Sun-Maid Girl first appeared in 2007, courtesy of the designers at Synthespian Studios, who in 1993 updated the Columbia Pictures torch lady to look something like Annette Bening. They are also the folks who brought us the animated Rocket the Wonder Dog and the possessed Sarah in Exorcist: The Beginning, to give you an idea of how comparatively tame their Sun-Maid Girl turned out.
Sun-Maid is notoriously protective of its old-fashioned image. Their message has stayed the same, and the image of the sweet, seemingly virginal Sun-Maid Girl has adorned their snack boxes consistently since 1915, with only three makeovers in nearly 100 years. (The last one was in 1970.) They keep "the treasured original watercolor painting" of the maid with the basket of grapes in a place that's safer than Fort Knox: "a concrete vault at Sun-Maid's headquarters in Kingsburg, California."
This new Amish Barbie is fun, but she's an inconsistent choice for the company. Sure, advertising has to keep up with the times. In her three makeovers, the Sun-Maid Girl has received gradual face lifts, so this is not her first bout with virtual cosmetic surgery. It just seems odd when the company insists that the Sun-Maid Girl "has always stayed true to the original image of Lorraine Collett that has been trusted and cherished by consumers around the world for generations."
Here's a picture of Lorraine, who died in 1983:
I wonder what she'd think today.
The execs at Sun-Maid are proud that their raisins contain "nothing but grapes and sunshine." But the new animated version of
the Sun-Maid Girl in the company's TV ads sports some decidedly unnatural (and perhaps surgically enhanced) additives as well. Even though the picture on the Sun-Maid raisin snack box hasn't changed since 1970, the busty new animated version has undergone an extreme makeover. The grape-picking maiden now looks more like a Barbie Doll in Amish attire.
The Sun-Maid Girl with her raven-colored curls and red bonnet was based on Lorraine Collett Petersen, who was discovered, legend has it, drying her long curly locks in her backyard in Fresno. (How they discovered her in the backyard like that, fresh from washing her hair, we leave to your imagination.) Sun-Maid liked the image of Lorraine because it seemed to embody what their raisins were all about: simple and all-natural, a product of California's bounteous land and sunshine.
Looking at the bounteous new Sun-Maid Girl, "simple" and "all-natural" are not the first words that come to mind. Instead, I think "breast augmentation" and "fake." Nothing but grapes, sunshine ... and a surgeon's scalpel.
I also think "Julia Roberts." And when I look more closely at the bonnet, I start to think "Dr. Seuss." But I do not think that this creature sprang ready-made from the land and the sun.
This bosomy version of the Sun-Maid Girl first appeared in 2007, courtesy of the designers at Synthespian Studios, who in 1993 updated the Columbia Pictures torch lady to look something like Annette Bening. They are also the folks who brought us the animated Rocket the Wonder Dog and the possessed Sarah in Exorcist: The Beginning, to give you an idea of how comparatively tame their Sun-Maid Girl turned out.
Sun-Maid is notoriously protective of its old-fashioned image. Their message has stayed the same, and the image of the sweet, seemingly virginal Sun-Maid Girl has adorned their snack boxes consistently since 1915, with only three makeovers in nearly 100 years. (The last one was in 1970.) They keep "the treasured original watercolor painting" of the maid with the basket of grapes in a place that's safer than Fort Knox: "a concrete vault at Sun-Maid's headquarters in Kingsburg, California."
This new Amish Barbie is fun, but she's an inconsistent choice for the company. Sure, advertising has to keep up with the times. In her three makeovers, the Sun-Maid Girl has received gradual face lifts, so this is not her first bout with virtual cosmetic surgery. It just seems odd when the company insists that the Sun-Maid Girl "has always stayed true to the original image of Lorraine Collett that has been trusted and cherished by consumers around the world for generations."
Here's a picture of Lorraine, who died in 1983:
I wonder what she'd think today.
Getty Images
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)
12-02-2009 @ 7:06PM
SailorKnightWing said...
I'm more wierded out by the creepy animation style. It's really plastic and stiff, not very natural motion.
Reply
12-03-2009 @ 6:19AM
Judy said...
America does not like this new up dated gal. They should go back to the old fashioned one. It was better.
12-03-2009 @ 6:22AM
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12-03-2009 @ 9:47AM
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12-03-2009 @ 11:08AM
kerry said...
WTF ,
yah i`m going to eat sunshine rasins and become a movie star . i`ll try it !!! if americans belive that then were stupid and what is that stupid animation trying to do?
i watched better cartoons as a kid.lol
12-03-2009 @ 11:46AM
roseybaby63 said...
I totally agree. I've never liked this kind of animation. It's so artificial and weird.
12-03-2009 @ 12:27PM
Jackie said...
I agree. When I watched the commercial, all I could think about was the weird animation. It creeps me out a bit...well, a lot. I don't think the boobs look THAT big, but the animation is really weird and it looks like the animation is lip syncing very badly. It seems like they didn't give an effort at all, because nowadays just about every animation with someone talking looks realistic, but this just looks like they POORLY moved her lips like those ventriloquist puppets.
12-03-2009 @ 9:10PM
Jim said...
Sailor, I agree. How are they ever going to get those new juggs of hers bouncing if they make the animation so stiff?
12-03-2009 @ 11:23PM
jean said...
She's the same woman -- just wearing a victoria's secret support bra. It's the 21st century. Raisin woman got her groove back.
12-04-2009 @ 2:18AM
ashleigh said...
I agree, Sailor -- the animation is aweful! She looks more like Audrina Patridge from The Hills than she does Lorraine... I want them to keep the original -- the eyes, the eyebrows, the nose, the mouth, the hair, the bonnet -- it was so much better, so why not just take that original and superimpose onto the new background? The new background is way better, because it shows the vineyards and the bounty, and I really like that! So old original adorable girl, with new bountiful background!! I wish we could vote for something like that!
12-03-2009 @ 6:23AM
Debbie said...
I like the old fashioned girl better also. It brings back warm memories of being a kid. Raisins were a snack we had often. The new girl looks too commercial.
Reply
12-03-2009 @ 9:32AM
Geegles said...
I agree! Why does everything in advertising have to be overly sexual? No wonder there are so many pervs in the world today! It's acceptable!
12-03-2009 @ 6:26AM
Yehuda Hamer said...
They also revamped the Tropic-ana icon also
Reply
12-03-2009 @ 6:32AM
risha shaw said...
the new ad will make me NOT buy SunMaid, but any other brand ! Instead of evoking old-fashioned goodness, it calls "trashy and synthetic." What stupid thinking !!!!
Reply
12-03-2009 @ 6:45AM
Salesman said...
I've never been so excited by an animated figure in my life, I love the changes, I'm gonna go buy some today! How about Aunt Jamima next!
Reply
12-03-2009 @ 10:25AM
Linda said...
No! Not Aunt Jemima! LOL
12-03-2009 @ 11:22PM
Richard said...
Hubba, Hubba!
12-03-2009 @ 8:47AM
George said...
What gets me is the article writer's harping on her new look as "unnatural" and "augmented". You're apparently a victim of our stick-figure-worshipping culture, because the new icon's breasts are actually what average breasts on a healthy woman look like. They're not over-sized, they're just normal!
However, I agree that the new icon's style is crap. She looks like a tourist wearing a bonnet for a laugh while pretending to be the previous icon. "Hey, look, I'm the Sun-Maid girl!" Probably not what they were aiming for.
Reply
12-03-2009 @ 2:40PM
oh, please. said...
It sounds to me more like you've fallen prey to the myth being perpetuated by the increasing ubiquity of implants. if you'll take a closer look, her body, proportionate to a real female would probably be about a size 6. If that.
Her mammaries are disproportionately mammoth. Boobs are nothing but fat. It's a rarity to find a gal that thin with *natural* boobs as big as hers. you wanna have your cake and eat it too. you LOVE the thinness! but you also love the boobs. embrace your shallowness and stop tooting your own horn. you're not a liberator of the female anatomy.
if she were the size she should be to be packing those DD's, you'd say, "what's in those raisins?? LARD!?"
12-12-2009 @ 9:30AM
George said...
Wow, how amazingly ignorant, "oh please". I'm not sureif you're a man or woman, but I'll try to set you straight.
First, breasts are much more than just fat. They're organs. Look it up. Yes, being overweight can mean some extra size of the breasts, like any other body part, but breast size is mostly hereditary. A thin woman can have very large breasts, and a heavy woman can have small ones. Second, the ones on the new image are not DD. You clearly know little about breasts. Educate yourself!
Last, and for the record, I do not "love the thinness". I don't mind a few extra pounds - curves are good - but if a woman is underweight, it's a turn-off. The main reason the fashion industry "loves the thinness" is because it's easier to design clothes that hang well on a stick figure. Designing clothes that fit well on people with a shape, and on people of varied shapes and sizes, is far harder.