Branding Is Fundamental

Published: December 13, 2023

Branding Is Fundamental

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher, and Tom Snyder

The trade papers in Hollywood have been all agog lately about the financial troubles at the movie box office of the Walt Disney Company’s tentpole movies, including superhero offerings and animated family movies.

Most of them have missed the point, however. They make the mistake of pointing out supposed flaws of the storytelling, character development and even technical production values.

What the industry pundits and analysts never mention is the fact that, in the past three years, Walt Disney Pictures has strayed from its family-friendly and faith-friendly roots to venture into controversial political and philosophical material.

In doing so, the movie company has damaged the brand that made it the go-to movie studio when it comes to broad audience appeal, especially to families with young children.

Once you damage your brand, it’s extremely hard to recover.

That’s why, when I meet with family groups, parent groups and more traditional educational groups and mention a new well-made Disney movie with family-friendly content, they are not interested in taking their children, including their teenage children, to it.

Making matters worse, many of these people have read where studio executives and actors associated with Disney movies have admitted they’ve inserted controversial viewpoints into the movies or, even worse, have attacked the family audience for disagreeing with those viewpoints.

When you destroy your brand, why would your previous audience return to your product, even if some of your new products return to the previous brand?

How, then, can Disney restore and regain its trust with its audience?

The family audience is the biggest audience for visual entertainment, especially movies shown in theaters. The second biggest audience is the Christian audience.

The best way for Disney to restore and regain trust, and restore and regain, if not improve, its bottom line is, first and foremost, for top studio executives to admit and apologize for its mistakes of the last three years in alienating so many parents and families, and so many people of faith and values, by inserting controversial and even offensive political and philosophical views in the company’s movies and television programs.

We are all created by a God who loves to give people second, third, fourth, and many other chances, but repentance is the key to getting those chances.

Finally, the way to restore and regain trust is to:

Increase the heartwarming, family-friendly content and values in animated movies and live action tentpole movies, including the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, and in Disney television programs;
Insert moral, traditional, spiritual, biblical values in those movies and television programs; and,
Eliminate any foul language, lewd innuendoes, graphic violence, and controversial political and philosophical content (not to mention explicit sex and nudity) from those movies and television programs.

For 31 years, MOVIEGUIDE® has been collecting and analyzing box office data and other financial information proving the kinds of movies and television programs that viewers prefer to support with their money and time. We know what families with children and grandchildren want to see and what they don’t want to see. Thus, we know what offends the second biggest audience, the Christian, faith-driven audience, and what it wants and doesn’t want.

Unlike many advocacy groups, we are not here to be sour-faced scolds. We are here to help entertainment industry leaders clean up their act and make better, more entertaining, more compelling, more satisfying, and more morally and spiritually uplifting movies and television programs, to reach the biggest audience possible, the family and Christian audiences, which overlap.

The greatest art and entertainment is the kind of art and entertainment that celebrates as well as acknowledges the Good, the True and the Beautiful.

Christians and families with children and grandchildren will support such art and entertainment.