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Branding experts warn ‘insufferable’ Rachel Zegler’s trash-talk may impact ‘Snow White’ ticket sales

August 16, 2023 | | Print Article

Branding “experts” are raising concerns about actress Rachel Zegler’s disparaging comments about the upcoming live action “Snow White” remix.

As previously reported, despite starring in the remix, Zegler has been relentlessly trash-talking it to the press. Most recently, she accused the original Prince Charming of being a creepy stalker. She also said she “hated” the original “Snow White” and thought the storyline was “weird.”

And to top it off, Zegler gushingly claimed the new “Snow White” won’t be a traditional love story but rather a tale about women’s empowerment.

Speaking with the Daily Mail on Tuesday, branding expert Carla Speight slammed Zegler’s “boss girl” attitude.

“There was a time when Disney actors were media trained and were thoughtful about the impact of their words, whilst sticking to key messaging about the films, but it seems with this total rewrite of Snow White, picturing her as a ‘boss girl’ has gone to the heads of their stars,” she said.

“Disney will need to be careful with how they have portrayed Snow White and what they do and don’t allow their actors to say about it going forwards. They simply cannot repeat the same mistakes and allow their actors to be so vocal in their own personal opinions during promotions,” she added.

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Doing so could “have a huge impact on ticket sales” and be a “disaster waiting to happen,” she warned.

“They need to get the key messaging and strong selling point into a brief for the cast of the film and ensure they stick to it. If they don’t, it’s a disaster waiting to happen and the backlash will keep growing. It’s possibly a good idea to get Rachel to clarify what she meant and highlight it was her own personal opinion, not a slight on women,” she said.

“They should highlight the important message that it’s okay to be who you want to be. After all, Disney has been famously telling us that they’re the place where ‘dreams do come true’ and have never actually defined what those dreams should be. Neither should their actors,” she added.

Nick Ede, a PR expert, agreed, adding that Zegler “isn’t the best person to promote the film.”

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“Rachel is a big-named star playing one of the world’s most famous fairytale characters immortalized by Disney, but instead of taking the lead of The Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey and embracing her role, Rachel has actively chosen to spoil the narrative and express the new direction she has taken Snow White in,” he said.

“This is by no means a wrong move and Snow White, and other stories, if they were written today, would have very different nuances and narratives, but the fact that she’s actively being negative about the source material and laughing off the old Disney film and the fairytale makes her look too eager to show off the new version and shows little or no respect for the previous version and other iterations,” he added.

According to Ede, Disney executives are “likely” having crisis talks at the moment to handle all the damage Zegler is causing.

“The film is due out in 2024 and with the negative narrative that’s now surrounding it, they will find it hard to create a magical and positive hype which they ultimately were looking to get having Rachel appear on red carpets,” he said.

“The negative press may entice people to see what all the fuss is about but unlike the recent Barbie movie, which features brilliant feminist and empowering messages which we only discovered upon viewing, it feels like the cat has been let out of the bag and we already have an opinion of the film thanks to Rachel’s narrative,” he added.

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Indeed, the public already has “an opinion” of both the film and Zegler, and it’s not a good one.

Case in point:

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Vivek Saxena
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