Disney Proves Hypocrisy With Social Media Advertising Decision
It's been a rough few years for the Walt Disney Company. After years of seemingly unsurmountable box office dominance, the film studio has released massive financial bomb after massive financial bomb.
The Marvels was an unmitigated disaster, opening to the lowest gross in Marvel Studios history.
READ: ‘THE MARVELS’ MAY BE DISNEY’S BIGGEST BOX OFFICE FLOP YET
It got worse from there, as woeful reviews and poor reception meant the film has stumbled to just $83 million at the domestic box office on a $275 million production budget. For context, cinematic classics such as The Equalizer 3 and The Nun II this year easily outgrossed one of Disney's signature releases. Then Wish came out and did even worse.
An animated film with an "Afro-Latina" star based on Michelle Obama and a $200 million production budget made just $51 million at the US box office despite a plumb, Thanksgiving weekend release date. Ouch.
It seems to have come as a surprise to CEO Bob Iger that his company's projects have been so soundly rejected. But it shouldn't be. The seeds for the Disney collapse were planted long ago, thanks in large part to Iger himself. And their recent advertising decision shows that the ingrained hypocrisy and political posturing shows no sign of slowing down.
SAN FRANCISCO - The Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger speaks onstage during "From 7 Dwarves to 140 Characters" at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 9, 2014. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Disney Increases Ad Spending On Instagram After Punishing X
Just last month, Disney announced it was pausing advertising on Elon Musk's X after an inaccurate hit piece by Media Matters.
At the time, the company said that the social media platform wasn't a "positive one for us."
Yet after a report showed that Meta's Instagram was putting Disney ads next to sexualized content targeted at children, the once-respected company decided to increase their spending on that platform. Makes perfect sense.
As always with institutions and corporations that have made obvious turns to the left, the hypocrisy is endless. Removing ads from X has nothing to do with Disney being upset that its content could be placed next to objectionable posts. It has everything to do with Musk expressing views that contradict current liberal consensus.
Mark Zuckerberg, however, is perfectly content to tow the party line. Instagram, thus, is rewarded. X is punished.
Iger Has No Will Or Ability To Fix What's Wrong
This is yet another example of how fundamentally broken the Disney company is under returning CEO Bob Iger. Iger allowed the talent and far left progressive employees to dictate Disney's direction.
Instead of retaining its family-friendly image, attitude and content, the film studio turned into open progressive activism. The parks, to a lesser extent, followed suit. And sure enough, the stock price has collapsed, with the company missing revenue targets in the previous quarter.
There's an obvious fix moving forward: reject the incursion of left wing politics into a children's entertainment company. Tell employees that Disney's direction comes from the top and won't be influenced by progressive activism. And that the only financially viable path forward is an objective one.
But Iger has shown no inclination to follow through on that path, likely out of fear of revolt from his friends on the far left. At every turn, including on social media advertising, he's shown his weakness and lack of willingness to make tough, but necessary decisions.
At least the delay of the much-ridiculed Snow White movie to 2025 means the company's balance sheet for 2024 won't look as bad as it should.