Cartoons Watch Their Waistlines
Walt Disney Company's PR/marketing machine is aligning its brand identity with healthy eating in response to the urgent rise in childhood obesity - a bold move considering the
conglomerate's child-friendly image has paired so well in the past with, for example, McDonald's Happy Meal toys and Kellogg's chocolate chip Pop-Tarts.
Ceasing to endorse junk food through its cartoon characters and theme park menu choices presents Walt Disney communicators with a dichotomous challenge: On one hand, parents
nationwide will likely applaud the move to improve their children's palettes and slim down their calorie intake, but advertisers and sponsors will be up in arms over the threat to
their thinning opportunities for audience exposure. As far as success goes, though, the proof will be in the pudding: If Walt Disney succeeds in squashing childhood obesity by
its 2008 goal without taking a hit to its profits, it will truly be a sweet communications/marketing victory.