Originally Posted By wonderingalice From Al Lutz's column today: <<(At least they're selling the 50th stuff in Anaheim. Word from Orlando is that the "happiest celebration" anniversary merchandise has languished on the shelves all summer long. Disney World visitors, mostly tourists from the Midwest and East Coast, take one look at the "celebration" logo and know instinctively that it is "Disneyland stuff from California" when they are looking for souvenirs from their Florida trip. The anniversary hoopla doesn't have nearly the same cachet in Orlando as it does west of the Rockies, to the bewilderment of Orlando's merchandising department. It turns out people aren't as dumb as the marketing folks thought, and they can actually tell the difference between Disneyland and Disney World.)>> Granted, the context of the article is the woeful understaffing currently being experienced at Disneyland, however, *I* think it's absolutely hilarious and wonderfully ironic that sales of the 50th celebration merchandise is failing at Walt Disney World. Why do I like this so much...? Because we've been TV-choked-to-death in Southern Nevada with those RIDICULOUS 50th commercials that feature WDW and not Disneyland... the true honoree! Har-har-hardy-har to those that attempt to shove us to WDW! *LOL*
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Yep! We have not seen even ONE commercial featuring Disneyland for it's 50th celebration. The ad that really gets me cussing is the one featuring Walt from his opening day speech - with the Cinderella Castle(!) in the background. It also shows versions of Disneyland attractions that are obviously at WDW, i.e., Mad Hatter Teacups with a canopy. It's blatant and disgusting, really.
Originally Posted By Elderp I posted about Disney's plans to do this but no one believed me. I guess now it actually got implemented. There were supposed to be some commercials in Utah too.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice No doubt... It's incredibly distasteful to those of us who love Disneyland and have 'grown up' there (I lived in So. Cal. until I was 11 when we moved to Las Vegas in 1969, and still made almost annual trips to the original Magic Kingdom after that
Originally Posted By Alyssa3467 What bakes my noodle is why that WDW commercial is aired here in "the OC"
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Isn't that just the most obnoxious and arrogant Disney thing ever??
Originally Posted By dresswhites yes that ad with Walt opening up WDW is pretty bad. Why couldn't they have done an add like that with Disneyland as the backdrop. Walt didn't open up WDW. He opened Disneyland. i have seen one Disneyland ad and it is with Stich riding Space Mountain or something.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Exactly, dresswhites... The Walt ad gives me a 'heart owwie-twinge' every time I see it. Our birthday star shouldn't be treated this way.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig As much as I too am offended by these WDW commercials taking the spotlight from Disneyland (yes, they do air here in Southern California, too), Disneyland certainly hasn't needed tons of TV commercials aired all over the western states to help boost attendance. Disneyland is already full, regardless. WDW has the capacity to take on all the additional people that these ads are aimed to. I'm just disgusted that it makes it look like it's WDW's anniversary, not Disneyland's.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Let's also remember that most, if not all, of these WDW commercials are being seen in Western markets on Cable or Network feeds that are going nationally. The same WDW commercial playing on a TV set in Anaheim is simultaneously playing on TV sets in Chicago, Atlanta and New York. Disney is obviously buying national air time and slotting in commercials on the national feeds. There are commercial slots reserved during broadcast time for local commercials to air, mostly on the local Network affiliates or independent stations. That's when you see the regional ads for things like In N' Out, or purely local ads for Cal Worthington Dodge or... Disneyland (How many times have you seen that Disneyland Santa snow ad in the past week? 20? 30?). But then there are slots where the same ad blankets the country all at the same time, and those are usually the big guns like Coke, Ford, Visa and.... Disney. And Disney is obviously putting all it's eggs into the more widely marketed WDW offering because it's aimed at the majority of the American population east of the Rockies. Disneyland really is a regional offering, aimed primarily at the 25 Million SoCal locals, and domestic tourists from the Bay Area, Arizona, Portland and Seattle. It's not so much Disney trying to cram WDW down the throats of someone watching in TV in Rancho Cucamonga, it's simply Disney buying national air time with it's big marketing dollars. There are plenty of local Disneyland commercials also playing for that guy in Rancho Cucamonga, once Cal Worthington and his dog Spot are done.
Originally Posted By Imagineer This Did anyone see Macy's Thanksgiving Parade? Disney had a float celebrating "50 years of theme park history." The word Disneyland was not mentioned. If Disney was doing a tribute to "all" the Disney parks then why was the only name on the float - "Walt Disney World" ?
Originally Posted By iluvdisneyland ^ Well... TECHNICALLY speaking Disneyland, Inc. is a division of Walt Disney World Co.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper You guys kill me sometimes. Here's the bottom line. WDW is the cash cow of the business. They have tens of thousands of hotel rooms to fill up. Disneyland has a few thousand rooms. As has been said in other areas, Disneyland does not have a shortage of visitors. There is no intentional disrespect to Disneyland being directed by the powers that be. They are making a business decision and for stockholders of Disney it is the correct business decision. Now, selling Disneyland merchandise at WDW is a bit of a stretch...I'll grant you that. But, if that merchandise ends up in Florida outlet stores I might by some just for the nostalgia of the 50th.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 "Granted, the context of the article is the woeful understaffing currently being experienced at Disneyland, however, *I* think it's absolutely hilarious and wonderfully ironic that sales of the 50th celebration merchandise is failing at Walt Disney World." It's kind of funny. Here in New York, the NYC World of Disney had the "Happiest Celebration on Earth" merchandise too (nothing from DL of course, since the store is operated by the Orlando WoD store. Anyway, I went back a month later after the stuff showed up on the shelves, and it was all gone. I was surprised, and asked if it had all sold out. Basically, it didn't...it didn't sell well at all, so they shipped it all back to WDW. Oh well. To be honest, I never felt much like buying the WDW merch, because I want things that say "Disneyland" on them, since it's that park's birthday.
