All Magic Has A Price -- at Disney's
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Titled "Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class", I find this a thoughtful essay on the American middle class' changed position:
America’s 20th century was a fortunate moment when we could rely on companies like Disney to deliver rich and unifying elements of our culture. Walt Disney hoped that his audience would have “no racial, national, political, religious or social differences” — he wanted to appeal to everyone, in no small part because appealing to everyone was profitable. It was a time when big institutions were trusted, and the culture they created was shared by nearly all Americans.
The economics of appealing to the middle class aren’t what they used to be. The market, and increasingly the culture, is dominated by the affluent. And technology is enabling companies to see these previously invisible class divides and act on them.
Based on what we earn, we see different ads, stand in different lines, eat different food, stay in different hotels, watch the parade from different sections, and on and on. What’s profitable today is not unification. It’s segmentation.
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When I was a kid there were still black and white reruns of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ on tv which I thought was stupid. Mickey Mouse cartoons I also didn’t like. Bugs bunny was my guy.
So I was a lost generation for Disney until the Pixar films pulled my son in.
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I should add I went to Disneyworld a bunch as a kid because from 9-14 we loved a little over an hour away, we got in-state discounts, and my mom would purposely find an unexpectedly lovely day in the off season and pull us out of school to avoid crowds, which weren’t nearly as bad back then to begin with.
