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.