New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan tweeted a pic of the Cannes Film Festival poster - which features a skinny, tall Snow White alongside a shorter and notably wider/larger Snow White, and asks the question: “What if Snow White was no longer beautiful, and the 7 dwarves not so short?”

"This Chloe Moretz cartoon also seems, uh, questionable,” he wrote alongside the snap.

Questionable indeed! ?

The poster overtly implies that the non-tall, non-thin Snow White is considered to be not beautiful - something many (rightly) feel is a worrying message to send to the movie’s presumably young target audience.

Quickly, celeb mum Tess Holliday, who’s also a plus-sized model and body positivity activist, took to Twitter to condemn the message of the ad.

"How did this get approved by an entire marketing team? Why is it okay to tell young kids being fat = ugly?”

And soon after, even the film’s star, 20-year-old actress Chloe Grace Moretz, felt obliged to address the controversial marketing strategy.

"I have now fully reviewed the mkting for Red Shoes, I am just as appalled and angry as everyone else,” she began.

“This wasn't approved by me or my team.”

"Pls know I have let the producers of the film know. I lent my voice to a beautiful script that I hope you will all see in its entirety.

"The actual story is powerful for young women and resonated with me. I am sorry for the offence that was beyond my creative control.”

Now, the South Korean flick’s trailer has been called into question, too.

The trailer, shared on YouTube in December 2016, shows the tall, thin Snow White undressing sexily before 2 peeping tom dwarves, who are hiding under her dresser.

She then takes off a pair of red shoes, and transforms into the shorter, larger Snow White. Both of the dwarves look pretty horrified by the transformation, before Snow White lets out a large burp.

We have to admit, we’re just a bit confused by all this ???

Surely there are loads of people working on this film, and we find it hard to believe that none of them thought that these weren’t the greatest messages to send out into the world.

That said, we haven’t seen the film itself - just these promotional snippets - so we really do hope that they’re just doing a bad job of representing a film with a message of self-acceptance.

And Locus Corporation, the production company behind the film, has since agreed to "discontinue" the poster and trailer, telling Page Six:

Locus Corporation wishes to apologise regarding the first elements of our marketing campaign (in the form of a Cannes billboard and a trailer), which we realise has had the opposite effect from that which was intended.”

“Our film, a family comedy, carries a message designed to challenge social prejudices related to standards of physical beauty in society by emphasising the importance of inner beauty."

So, we’ll have to wait and see which way it goes ?

Images: Twitter/Kyle Buchanan, YouTube

Read more:

Elizabeth Atkin

Authors

Create the perfect wishlist for your baby with MyCrib