Disney: Cultural Revolution

From the very beginning Disney made its legacy with a mouse which became an iconic piece of the company’s history. This one symbol reflects an entire history, culture and dream – symbols that bind together the moralities and intellectual archetypes that create a value system for each and every Disney consumer (Ward, p. 129). There is not one Disney consumer that wouldn’t recognise the harmonious lyrics ‘When you wish upon a star, Your dreams come true’, a melody that we all understand and share like church hymns and prayer; this is the Walt Disney equivalent of hope and faith – a desire for Disney lovers to share and interpret the values together.

What was once about a shared identity has become an identity of the individual through consumerism. We don’t share a wish upon a star, we seek the individual meanings and create ourselves. However within the Disney animations there are references to religion, as Pinsky states

“Providence will show up in the form of a fairy, wizard, talking willow tree, or some other folktale device to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and ensure that American values never go unrewarded” (Pinsky, p. 10).

Children who consume in the Disney products know what they see; whether they have seen it or not, it isn’t the stories or the films that draws their attention most, it is the merchandise and promotion that they become aware of (Miller, p. 5). It is through the “use of narrative to sell merchandise” that Disney has acquired its greatest cultural influence compared to other producers of popular culture (Miller, p. 5).

Disney has played a big part in the childhood lives of people all around the world of all ages; we grew up with The Little Mermaid (1989), Tarzan (1999) and Beauty and the Beast (1991) and it is these kinds of films that we have great childhood memories we can connect with and therefore have personal value to. With this great emphasis behind them, Disney Corporation has imprinted its name in history as a traditional dream world.

Commercialisation is a target towards identity, as mentioned in an earlier entry, consuming within a culture can be used to create an identity – likewise it is “a shared world of experience for children today to play and associate with” (Stoklund, p. 6). As Hulan (p. 31) suggests it becomes necessary for a need to socially belong (Hulan, p. 31), and through consuming individuals can find that security. The innocent values held by Disney targeted at youth however do not seem so innocent anymore, because if we consider this is how people engage with Disney and its counter associates on a regular basis, it becomes an issue that stockholders and media structures hold the power to create and shape identities. This was not Disney’s original purpose. Instead it was for consumers to share the value of Disney, as the lyrics suggest, “Your dreams come true”.

“It is said of the Disney empire that, It all started with a mouse. “ That’s not true. It all started with Walt’s dream of a mouse – a mouse that his belief, daring, and spirit of can-do brought to glorious and hugely profitable life” (Capodagli and Jackson, p. XV).

References:

Capodagli, Bill and Jackson, Lynn. The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. 2001.

Hulan, Danielle. ‘Mistaking Brands for Tween Identity’. The McMaster Journal of Communication. Vol 4 issue 1. 2007. 31-36.

Miller, Vincent.J. Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture. London: Continuum International Publishing Group: 2005

Pinsky, Mark.I. The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust. Kentucky: Westminister John Knox Press. 2004.

Stoklund, Bjarne. Enthologia Europaea: Journal of European Ethnology, vol 27. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. 1997.

Ward, Annalee.R. Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film. Texas: University of Texas Press. 2002.

Image: 'Beauty and the Beast' copyrighted Disney Enterprises Inc.

Disney: Reflections of Identity

Touching on the material mentioned in the last entry on Disney’s educational values, it makes sense to consider an educational approach to identity also. Eisner and Disney have implied they are aware of the influence their corporation can have on its audience and consumers as an educational factor (Giroux, p. 28). Indeed Disney animations and films can be used to teach morals, traditions and values which can be seen to resemble religious teachings; but if this is so, racism, discrimination and ethnocentrism is also very possible in which case Disney animations under Eisner (who remains central to Disney Corp. productions (Stewart, p. 116)) were either not carefully constructed or deliberate in the subtle teachings of inequality.

“Disney’s centrality in culture, its dominance of the children’s film market, and its constructivist post modern worldview contribute to the understanding of it as a major force of influence in culture, a hegemonic agency” (Ward, p. 131).

According to Pinsky (p. 127) Eisner tends to remain quiet about his opinions on the subject of Israel, which is perhaps due to his background and Jewish heritage (Pinsky, p. 127). Instead Eisner has acknowledged his feeling’s as being uneasy regarding setting a film in the Middle East, such as Aladdin (1992) (Pinsky, p. 127). The media has huge impacts on how people are socialised from a young age (ward, p. 16) so these cultural representations become imprinted within their ways of life.

However, Disney has created few of their animated films with animals as they are used to replace human emotion and identities in many of the Disney films. This is perhaps a clever attempt to shadow racism as animals are not distinctly ‘human’ and furthermore reinforce the idea of a ‘circle of life’ (Burt, p. 49), the resemblance of the economy, and Disney as the Lion. The Disney film The Lion King (1994) was one of Disney’s known racist films, as the Hyena’s were likened to an urban gang voiced by African American’s (Pinsky, p. 154).

Furthermore, as Disney was a transnational corporation, they reflected numerous stereotypes through different characters for different nationalities, for example the Rescue Aid Society featured numerous mice from around the globe in the Disney animation The Rescuers (1977). These representations can be considered stereotypical and at times rather racist such as Mulan (1997), and can be used as an educative tool for young children.

“Racism and sexism linger in the small cracks and crevices of American life, so children’s films that support equality in matters of race and gender are still valuable” (Booker, p. 173).

References:

Booker, M.Keith. Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children’s Films. California: ABC-CLIO. 2010.

Burt, Jonathan. Animals in Film. London: Reation Books. 2002.

Giroux, Henry.A. The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2001.

Pinsky, Mark.I. The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust. Kentucky: Westminister John Knox Press. 2004.

Stewart, James.B. Disney War. New York: Simon and Schuster. 2005.

Ward, Annalee.R. Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film. Texas: University of Texas Press. 2002.

Ward, David. The European Democratic Deficit and the Public Sphere: An Evaluation of EU Media Policy. Amsterdam: IOS Press. 2002.

Image: 'Mulan' copyrighted Disney Enterprises Inc.

Disney: Reflections of History

In my last entry I touched upon the commercialisation of children and the family values that Disney has undertaken since the reign of Michael Eisner, former CEO of The Walt Disney Company. As mentioned before, Disney holds a worldwide reputation built upon, since its inception, for being family friendly and being a main value of American culture. However the past has shown through their animated feature films that the company values may have changed under Eisner and in particular have led to mixed feelings to how softly parts of American history are represented (Bryman, p. 6).

Disney’s widespread influence, particularly to children through animations, offers an entertainment based media with educational traits (Giroux, p. 18) which Walt Disney intended to focus on to prove the media’s influence can be educational (Giroux, p. 18). However when Eisner took over Disney there were certain films like Pocahontas (1995) that could be considered racist and untruthful as Disney changed the seriousness of the White Colonisation and turned it into a fantasy-romance story (Budd and Kirsch, p. 170). With films like Pocahontas Disney has been accused of ‘sweetening’ the story and changing the history (Bryman, p.6). When Eisner took over the company, the values became about the profits, a fact that Eisner cannot deny, instead he implies his own ideas to the extent Disney’s influence can reach (Giroux, p. 28). Eisner can be quoted saying:

“The Berlin wall was destroyed not by the force of western arms but by the force of western ideas. And what was the delivery system of those ideas? It has to be admitted to an important degree it was by American entertainment” (Giroux, p. 28)

The idea is that through entertainment, underlying messages can be passed across which brings up the argument that if Michael Eisner and Disney knew of how powerful their influence really was to children, then the representations of race and historical inequalities become deliberate. However, it is not just American representations we have seen through the years. Under Eisner there have been multiple identity representations whether it is racial, ethnical, gendered or religious, they have all been considered.

References:

Bryman, Alan. The Disneyization of Society. London: Sage. 2004.

Budd, Mike. and Kirsch, Max.H. Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions. USA: Wesleyan University Press. 2005.

Giroux, Henry.A. The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2001.

Image: 'Pocahontas' copyrighted Disney Enterprises Inc.

Disney: Commercialisation of Children

Since The Walt Disney Company first began in the early 1920’s (Bryman, Disney and His Worlds, p. 14), its iconic emblem of the mouse can be recognised by families all around the globe as the symbol of all that Disney denotes: its animated feature films, its Establishments, merchandise and purely the idea of an affordable and accessible family escape (Ward, p. 31).

After Eisner took over Disney, the company had started to lose integrity, as people saw it become more profit focused through excessive merchandising and promotion. It can be seen as a way of commercialising children, as the traditional values of Disney had disappeared. It has been quoted by Eisner himself that the family value has disappeared, and the Disney icon is being manipulated for profits.

“We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.” (Nicolosi and Lewerenz, n.p.)

As Disney is so powerful and already sustains a reputation, it is hard to ignore what is the good name of Disney – a name that represents a dream and a family friendly world. Since Eisner’s direction, Disney’s films have become less a focus and are instead used as the driving force behind merchandising. The reliance behind this idea is that customer loyalty must prevail, and be caught, through its reputation, to continue to consume Disney as a media culture (Budd and Kirsch, 262). It was Disney’s already powerful reputation that had been the benefit to Eisner’s plans of expansion, which due to Disney’s advancements into all aspects of entertainment and media, from radio to television and internet (Budd and Kirsch, p. 262), there is no surprise that Eisner relied on Synergy to further his progress (Budd and Kirsch, p. 263).

In particular it was the availability to cross-promote with itself through different sectors that allowed Disney to gain profit two fold and decrease the marketing costs (Hardy, 116). To cross-promote outside their own grounds however was particularly strategized in order to not only gain profit but reach out for future consumers. In particular it was the cross-promotions between McDonalds and Disney that are most memorable, and were very successful. The alliance extended the sales by 23% for McDonalds Happy Meals and which led to a rise of 7% in sales and overall interest in Disney (Bryman, The Disneyization of Society, p. 69).

References:

Bryman, Alan. Disney and His Worlds. London: Routledge. 1995.

Bryman, Alan. The Disneyization of Society. London: Sage. 2004.

Budd, Mike. and Kirsch, Max.H. Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions. USA: Wesleyan University Press. 2005.

Hardy, Jonathan. Cross-Media Promotion. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc. 2010

Nicolosi, Barbara. and Lewerenz, Spencer. Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film and Culture. USA: Baker Books. 2005. 16-17

Ward, Brett.M. Bulletproof: A Cop’s Guide to Financial Success. Indiana: AuthorHouse. 2007.

Image: 'The Fox and the Hound' copyrighted Disney Enterprises Inc.

Disney: Michael Eisner the Power Player

‘It all started with a mouse’ is a common theme explored when we research where the iconic Disney company all began and when we consider the dreamer behind the stories we recognise Walt Disney. Disney created The Walt Disney Company with the dream to bring alive the traditional American values of family and children.

It was former Paramount President Michael Eisner that would subsequently save and change the Walt Disney Company from the loss of profit Disney was experiencing in the 1980’s to its productive and stable state today. When Eisner took control of Disney he sought to revitalise the company starting with its “core competencies” (Capodagli and Jackson, p. 195) in his aims to expand the Disney company in all possible directions at once (Bryman, p. 33).

However it was the changes Eisner had made that has been the cause of much criticism which has shown alienation of the original intentions of Walt Disney (Budd and Kirsch, 117). Such accusations as the commercialisation of children and children’s culture, numerous race and ethnical representations and how softly the more sensitive aspects of American history have been treated within Disney animations (Booker, p. 60). In the early 2000’s Eisner became the main blame for Disney’s increased lack of focus seeming to be leading the company stray (Canals, p. 199).

Eisner’s position had direct influence to the material that Disney was creating through a system of centralization where Eisner himself sat at the centre of all decision making to do with the company (Stewart, p. 116). Eisner had a strong management team that were prevented from gaining control through the use of a strategic-planning unit which was used to regularly act as a check on their power which was later restored by Igor when Eisner was sacked (Pasiuk, p. 300). Despite the boardroom being the main place for ideas to develop, Eisner was the overseeing man in charge where all decisions suggested would be passed on through chiefs directly to him (Stewart, p. 116). The main argument is that Eisner’s problem with sharing power (Dourado, n.p) gave him personally enough power to use Disney for personal gains.

“Given Disney’s powerful presence in society, the implications of its worldview suggest that the company has the potential to act as a competitor to religions place in culture and as a hegemonic force” (Ward, p. 134).

References:

Booker, M.Keith. Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children’s Films. California: ABC-CLIO. 2010.

Bryman, Alan. Disney and His Worlds. London: Routledge. 1995.

Budd, Mike. and Kirsch, Max.H. Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions. USA: Wesleyan University Press. 2005.

Canals, Jordi. Building Respected Companies: Rethinking Business Leadership and the Purpose of the Firm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010.

Capodagli, Bill and Jackson, Lynn. The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. 2001.

Dourado, Phil. The 60 Second Leader: Everything You Need to Know About Leadership, In 60 Second Bites. Chichester, UK: Capstone Publishing. 2007.

Pasiuk, Laurie. Vault Guide to the Top Media &Entertainment Employers. Ed 1. USA: Vault Inc. 2005.

Stewart, James.B. Disney War. New York: Simon and Schuster. 2005.

Ward, Annalee.R. Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film. Texas: University of Texas Press. 2002.

Image: 'The Lion King' copyrighted Disney Enterprises Inc.