Page 88 - The Disneyization of Society

Chapter Four

Merchandising

Mini Contents

Why merchandise? 80
Merchandising at the Disney theme parks 81
Precursors of merchandising 82
The diffusion of merchandising 84
Merchandising at Disney 84
Feature films 88
Television series 92
Theme parks 93
Themed restaurants and themed hotels 94
Zoos 94
McDonald’s 96
Sport 96
Other domains of merchandising 97
Reflections on merchandising 98
Conclusion 100

In this discussion, ‘merchandising’ refers to the promotion of goods in the form
of or bearing copyright images and logos, including such products made under
licence. As such, it includes such things as t-shirts and mugs bearing logos and
models of proprietary characters. Merchandising is a form of franchising, in the
sense that it is a mechanism for leveraging additional uses and value out of exist-
ing well-known images. Increasingly, a movie is not just a movie but a platform
from which a variety of different extensions of the movie can be launched. To the
extent that it can be used as a launch pad for a plethora of spin-offs, merchan-
dising can be said to have taken place. Merchandising has its roots in the mass
production of souvenirs but extends this phenomenon by associating the notion
of a souvenir with copyright logos and images.
Merchandising has strong affinities with hybrid consumption. In fact, in his
discussion of Disneyization in relation to the American criminal justice system,
1
Robinson links the two so that they almost form a single dimension. Hybrid con-
sumption frequently entails the sale of goods that are based on the merchandis-
ing principle of extending images and concepts. As we will see, a theme park, as

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