Let the Memories Begin: Castle Graffiti or Gratification?

Disney's new marketing campaign, Let the Memories Begin, announced live from New York and on-line everywhere, elicited both shouts of encouragement and groans of disappointment, the latter from people who were expecting a truly spectacular event such as a new theme park, perhaps one based on the Marvel universe.

Instead, the announcement put forth the basics of a new on-line promotional campaign, itself a logical extension of Disney's surge into social media. The campaign is unremarkable except for a controversial gimmick that would project pictures of selected park guests onto the walls of Cinderella Castle in Disney World and It's a Small World in Disneyland.

The gimmick is intended to do what gimmicks always do: draw attention to a more important but less exciting aspect of a marketing venture. In this case, it's Disney's new social media site, Let the Memories Begin, where you can submit your vacation photos and videos for Disney to share with the world. The tiniest sliver of families will receive the ultimate reward: participation in one of Disney's television, print, or on-line advertisements. Your family will have to look good, smile pretty, and likely sign a lot of paperwork, but what red-blooded Disney family wouldn't jump at the chance to represent the Mouse?

For that matter, what red-blooded Disney family wouldn't jump at the chance to see their smiling mugs projected to colossal size on the side of Cinderella Castle one night?

That's just the problem.

Many Disney commentators are aghast at such 'graffiti' defacing pristine Cinderella Castle. I feel their pain. One moment you're admiring the beautiful fairy-lit castle exterior, the next you're wincing at the sight of a husky family from Kentucky enjoying their five seconds of photographic fame. But if it was your family up there, what a memory, right?

Disney has tapped into a fundamental but unlovely facet of human nature. We love to look at ourselves; not so much at others we perceive as equals. I don't want to see your vacation pictures. Even if you're my friend, I don't want to see your vacation pictures. And I don't want to show you mine because I know you'll be bored. When I'm in the Magic Kingdom, I do want to see Cinderella Castle, especially when it's lit at night, and I want to see it without the Facebook slide show.

Remember all the folks who had a conniption when the company slung the Tron skins over the monorails and made them look like impurities flowing through Disney's magical veins? Projecting pictures on the Castle must, to those people, seem as if Universal blackened Cinderella's eye and bloodied her nose. I don't think Disney anticipated such a visceral reaction.

Another problem is uncertainty. Won't you feel cheated if you drag the gang over from Adventureland, where you've all been having a marvelous time, and join the crowd in front of the Castle hoping to see yourselves in titanic Technicolor - and then not see yourselves? Wasn't your family good enough to make the cut? Why did all those other families (a rangy looking bunch, in your eyes!) get chosen but not yours? Disney disappointment.

So how is this going to pan out?

Splendidly! The vast majority of people who visit Disney don't bother much with the 'fan' sites and forums. They pay attention to Disney. They'd love to have their pictures and videos on Disney's social media site, and they'd love even more to see themselves on the Castle walls.

In this they'll be guided by their children: my own kids, for example, are thrilled with Disney's big announcement. They don't care that Disney wiill have copyright to their pictures and videos, and they don't care about keeping Cinderella Castle pure. They want to be part of the magic. That's what Disney intended. And that's why it'll work.