In the run-up to the release of the 1973 film in France, numerous partnerships were formed in all branches of commerce and industry to promote the film’s characters. One of these was with the Bel cheese company, which offered to collect one of its 13 stickers featuring the characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in its boxes of the famous “The Laughing Cow” cheese, still popular today.
The campaign was relayed on December 5, 1973 in the trade magazine Le Film Français, aimed at exhibitors to assure them that the film would be well promoted. It was reported that 24 million of these “self-adhesives” were distributed from November 1, and that Le journal de Mickey relayed the campaign (see ads below), which was also supported in supermarkets with P.L.V. (point-of-sale advertising, typically cardboard posters, often embossed). A few years later, from December 27 to 29, 1979, The Laughing Cow organized its first Cannes festival on the theme of Walt Disney films, and to mark the occasion, organized a vignette competition. As part of this competition, Bashful represented his film on the vignette dedicated to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The Vignettes
There are 13 vignettes, one for each of the main characters (Snow White, the dwarfs, the Prince, the Queen and the hag). Snow White is given three vignettes to introduce the animals (on her vignette alone, she is shown with birds), and the third gives Doc the opportunity to appear a second time, this time with her. The reverse of the vignettes explains how to collect them: boxes of 8 portions contain one vignette, those of 16 portions contain two, and those of 24 portions contain three!
The illustrations are not signed, but they all reproduce, more or less faithfully, the studio’s canonical illustrations. In fact, some of the drawings can be found in the ink pads sold at the same time.
