Disney, back off from my paper towel!

If you have small kids you are probably aware of my challenge: The million-Euro-marketing-budget cartoon characters are discovering the kid’s minds. Suddenly their bed is full of (plush toys of) handicapped fish or ice-cold princesses like Nemo and Elsa, respectively. Recently, I observed a quantum leap in cleanness after meal time because of Dory on our paper towels. How could Disney intrude so deeply into our family life?

1. The characters are addressing the kids wishes, needs, and fears: The story behind is comprehensible and is circulating around love and denial as well as relationships and loneliness.
2. They are cute and well made. Big eyes, scheme of childlike characteristics, strong and pleasing colors and high recognition value.
3. They reached the critical mass that everybody wants and needs them, who does not want to become and outsider. My 3 and 5 year old kids are not allowed to watch the stressful and too brutal movies. However, they indirectly learn about the story and absorb every grain of information they can get.
4. The merchandising machinery places the characters everywhere (including my paper towels) and by doing so, they easily go viral.

Respect Mr. Disney, you invented sub-cutaneous marketing for toddlers with a pinch of brain wash. If you read a few of my blog posts, you probably know, what comes next. The checklist how to escape from this conspiracy:

1. Promote all kinds of alternatives within your family. In the bath-tube, take the water bird’s whistle instead of the self swimming, electric Dory. If this is your only strategy, you are lost. This just works in combination with other measures.
2. Damage the image of Elsa, Anna, Dory, Nemo, lion king and Arielle by expressing your dislike and explaining the advantages and uniqueness not to be the seventh Elsa in the carnival party.
3. Trash toothbrushes with Minions and remove all stickers from furniture.
4. Avoid supermarkets with Disney gifts for customer’s loyalty.

Most importantly don’t turn this into a religious war. There are more important things in life, than fighting against cartoons. Show your kids, that you love them and spend as much time together as possible. Get used to it, that you can never win. And maybe you even start liking Disney-cartoons a little bit.