Page 152 - The Disneyization of Society

CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE

customers are no longer willing to accept that the shops they visit are just places to buy goods. They
demand drama and deserve to be delighted by the experience. Shops have become destinations in
themselves – not only a place to purchase, but a place to be entertained, inspired and, in the case 143
of Girl Heaven, to have loads of fun. 25
Of course, consumers are not necessarily (and indeed are unlikely to be) duped by
the machinations of theming and are frequently possessed of an ample store of
virtual capital, that is, a stock of knowledge and images assembled by the indivi-
dual from sources like television, film and advertising, plus a capacity for playful
responses to mediated and simulated images. 26 On the other hand, the playful
responses that themed environments entail may sometimes result in consumers
dropping their normally judicious guards.
There are other common ways in which control is exercised in and through
Disneyization. The growth of merchandising has resulted in a growing tendency
for the souvenir to be thought of as something that bears a logo, whereas in non-
Disneyized environments of the past and today, it was something that served as
a memento of a visit. All souvenirs, especially those which are mass-produced,
commodify memories, but the merchandise form takes the process even further
in associating what constitutes a souvenir with corporations and their logos.
Disneyization also controls our perceptions of places by plundering popular
culture for images of what a place is like. For example, when the previously-
mentioned Trafford Centre Information Pack refers to the mall’s ‘unique restaurant
and leisure environment with themed areas from around the world including
27
China, New Orleans, Egypt, Venice, New York and Morocco’ what it actually means
is that it uses iconic representations of these places that are part of popular cul-
ture and recycles them back to us. Similarly, as was noted in the discussion in
Chapter 2 of the theming of places, the publicity surrounding tourist destinations
increasingly themes places in terms that will be recognizable and attractive to
prospective visitors and as a result controls our perceptions of those places. Often,
because of the inability of the tourist to enter the back regions of such destina-
tions, 28 the visitor’s perception of the place in terms of the themed features is
unaffected by contact with it. Consequently, in a variety of ways, Disneyization
controls (or at least has the potential to control) our perceptions of places and
souvenirs. In addition, of course, control relates to merchandising in that con-
sumers have to be placed in the right context for purchasing it, so movement is
controlled in theme parks, museums, art galleries, themed restaurants, and so on
to maximize the propensity to purchase such items.
New Urbanism towns emphasize control in at least two senses. One is that they
derive from a master plan of social engineering, which is based on principles to
do with restoring a sense of community and separating Americans from their
automobiles. Second, in order to ensure that the town has a distinctive style, there
are usually strict building codes that restrict the range of options within which
housing designs can vary. This feature is taken to the extreme in Celebration