By Bill Sargent and Mark Mansius
The Post Newspaper Guest Columnists
Editor’s Note: The Post Newspaper welcomes the opinions of its readers. However, we do not condone nor support the views that are espoused on our pages. If you are interested in writing a guest column, please contact publisher@thepostnewspaper.net.
In the past few years several companies choose a path contrary to their consumers’ wishes resulting in painful, and sometimes crippling, boycotts. The Walt Disney Company finds itself precipitously among them. It started quietly years prior under Bob Igor’s reign and became public when Disney chose to fight against a new law that would prohibit controversial sexual behavior “education” of children during their impressionable years leaving such training to where it belongs, parents.
Disney, under then President Bob Chapek and a small group of California-based leftists, chose to bitterly fight against the Florida measure, doing so against reportedly strong support for the law from over 80% of Floridians and a strong majority of their own employees. Florida responded by pulling Disney’s sweetheart Reedy Creek District deal, forcing them to pay the local county for basic services and taxes; a move that reportedly cost Disney billions.
What began with its attempt to include hidden sexual messaging in children-focused movies, followed by its public fight against Florida, drastically and negatively impacted the “Disney image” among their customers and resulted in the company’s loss of billions of dollars. Disney management blamed it on COVID but other sources paint a different picture.
The company’s original business model pulled together successful movies and TV shows followed by including these attractions at its parks, cruise businesses, and merchandising – the latter being the most profitable of the three. In essence, children saw and liked the movies followed by pestering mom and pop to head to the parks or buy the merchandise. With the derogation of the movies, the linkage falls apart. In order to keep afloat, Disney’s reaction has been to institute steep price increases at its parks and cost cutting elsewhere instead of fixing the real issues.
Disney’s stock has fallen by 55% from its recent high and a proxy/takeover effort has been started by former employees and some major stock holders. Their goal is to add or replace several board members with those who want to bring back Walt’s vision – family friendly affordable entertainment. One prospective board member is Jay Rasulo, the former CFO, who commented, “The Disney I know and love has lost its way.”
At the heart of the struggle is Disney’s current management decision to attack long held societal moral values of families while leaving behind the successful culture of clean broad reaching entertainment. Disney faces an uphill, and possibly impossible, battle if it continues to disregard its roots. Disney’s own SEC filing admits its failure, stating, “We face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, … … consumers’ perceptions of our position on matters of public interest, including our efforts to achieve certain of our environmental and social goals, often differ widely and present risks to our reputation and brands.” Translated: they’re targeting positions not supported by public masses or their customers.
When Walt announced the development of Disney World he said “We know the basic things that appeal to families.” Apparently, Disney has lost sight of Walt’s vision. We support the proxy battle to overturn the current management and support those who want the company to rediscover and return to Walt’s vision – to entertain its customers and shareholders without interjecting its will about social norms.
