Disney’s having a bad year, and we’re only at the end of April. The damage to Disney’s reputation has been broad, but it has all been self inflicted. They have admitted that they are on a quest to indoctrinate your children with more than 50% LGBTQ content in their programming, they have surrendered their magic in their theme parks to a woke minority, by removing their famous tagline, “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls”, and replaced it with “dreamers of all ages”, have asked cast members not to refer to little girls as princesses in fear that they might not be girls, have lost their self governing autonomy, because they thought making legislative demands of their host State was politically wise, parents have cancelled their trips to Disney World, Disney+ subscriptions are rumored to be in trouble, and their stock has plummeted below pandemic levels. Disney is headed over the cliff, and the only ones that can save them are themselves. Disney and Bob Chapek need to course correct immediately, or the days where Disney was a trusted family friendly brand might be over.
Agenda Driven Executives Might Have Just Tarnished Disney’s Brand Forever
While Bob Chapek bent the knee and complied with a minority of the population, he chose to stand against parents and their kids, saying that teaching kids ages 4-9 about sexual orientation and gender identities was okay, and that he was going to fight to repeal Florida’s parental Rights in Education bill and those like it across the country. Disney, a once politically neutral, family trusted brand, has shunned their primary customer base in favor of an LGBTQ agenda that only serves 5% of the population. Disney’s top executives in charge of content, have all committed to ensuring that your children’s content is filled with an LGBTQ agenda, because they think that that is normal for little kids to watch. What they have done is ignore 95% of the population that doesn’t agree with that lifestyle or point of view. As a result, Bob Chapek willingly exposed his company to an onslaught, not only from Disney’s primary customer base, but is now up against the State of Florida and Disney shareholders. In an April 5th letter representing Disney Shareholders, Reed Rubinsten, former deputy attorney general in the Trump Administration, has demanded an investigation into Chapek’s material harm of Disney’s brand and reputation, as well as Disney’s violation of its employees civil rights. From the American Conservative:
“In an April 5 letter on behalf of shareholders to Disney’s board of directors, Reed Rubinstein, former deputy attorney general in the Trump Administration, demanded a corporate investigation into Chapek’s “wasting of corporate assets,” including material harm to Disney’s brand and reputation, as well as Disney’s violation of employees’ civil rights by fostering a discriminatory and hostile work environment.”
Disney is Violating Employees Civil Rights That Disagree With HB1557
The letter also includes such accountability from Disney as explaining, with evidence, how Disney executives, including Bob Chapek, think Florida’s parental Rights in Education Bill challenges or violates human rights, why Disney executives think adding queerness into children’s programming would be beneficial to Disney’s brand, and why employees at Disney, who don’t agree with Disney’s foray in to activist politics, and are conservative or Christian, are afraid to express their point of views or beliefs for fear of retribution. That last one gets very specific in the letter, and states that there would be monetary consequences for Disney’s violation of civil rights laws.
Disney is in a Self Made Room Without Exits
Disney is boxed into a corner, and it could have been all avoided had Bob Chapek just stood his ground, and kept Disney neutral in the political forum. But because of a few loud mouth executives and employees stirring up the hornets nest, Disney is now swimming in a vast ocean without a life preserver. Employees are upset, and feeling discriminated against, because a minority of the population is steering Disney’s course. Parents are upset because they don’t want Disney exposing their children to their “not so secret gay agenda”. Shareholders are seeing their investments tank, because of Disney’s blatant one sided deep dive into politics. And Florida’s government, took a stand against Disney’s attempt at bullying them into a repeal of their lawfully passed legislation, that protects 5 year olds from being exposed to sexual orientation and gender studies, by taking away their self governing privileges.
Disney Could Fix This Tomorrow
It will be interesting to see Disney’s financial reports for their 2nd quarter in a couple of weeks, to see how much of an impact their social justice divisiveness has had on their reputation. If a recent poll from the Convention of States Action and the Trafalgar Group are to be believed, nearly 70% of Americans disagree with Disney’s activist opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in education bill. In that same poll almost 70% said they were likely to find alternatives to Disney programming and entertainment. If the poll is correct, and Disney’s stock price cratering is any indication, Disney would seem to be in an untenable situation. Parents are up in arms across the country about educators teaching their young children about sex and gender. This has been ongoing for the last two years, so why would Disney executives and Bob Chapek think it was okay to add fuel to the fire? Were they that unaware of their political surroundings? That’s unlikely. It’s more likely they thought they were invincible to this kind of backlash. Disney has summarily learned the hard way, not to mess with parents and their kids. Bob Chapek and Disney could course correct this tomorrow, by coming out with a statement committing to Disney fans, parents, and kids, that they were wrong. That is highly unlikely, because Disney would be afraid of the backlash from that intolerant 5% of the population. Disney and Bob Chapek have been predictably silent the last week, hoping the tried and true silent treatment of years past, when things went sideways, will work to quell the national resentment of their political positions. That’s probably not going to work…and this time Disney is going to know what it’s like to be held to account.
