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Talk of the Day

Tidbits from the business world.

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 9, 2006

Disney wants all your dreams to come true

The Walt Disney Co. has unveiled a new yearlong global marketing campaign for its theme parks that includes the debut of some new attractions in Florida and California, features the celebrity photography of Annie Leibovitz and offers giveaways large and small. The campaign, called "Where Dreams Come True," replaces the successful Disneyland 50th Anniversary campaign that had encompassed all Disney theme parks and resorts around the world. The campaign will launch on Oct. 1 at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, concluding a promotion that will include a winning family having the Magic Kingdom theme park to themselves with VIP treatment, including entering the park on a red carpet down Main Street U.S.A. Also, in the "Disney Dreams Giveaway," 1-million "dreams" will be awarded to guests selected randomly throughout the yearlong campaign. Giveaways include overnight stays inside Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World Resort. Highlights:

Walt Disney World: The Seas With Nemo & Friends, inspired by the Pixar Animation Studios film Finding Nemo, will debut at Epcot this year, while the live stage show Finding Nemo: The Musical will bow at Animal Kingdom, replacing Tarzan Rocks. At the Magic Kingdom, the Laugh Floor Comedy Club, an interactive attraction based on the Pixar film Monsters, Inc., will debut in early 2007. It will replace the Jules Verne Time Keeper science fiction movie.

Disneyland: Rockin' Space Mountain, a revamped version of its popular attraction with new lighting and music and other twists, will debut in spring 2007. The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage will debut that fall.

Other chatter

WENDY'S GETS HEALTHIER: Wendy's International Inc. said Thursday it will begin frying french fries and breaded chicken items with nonhydrogenated oil, aiming for more healthful choices for customers.

SALES OF PROMOTIONAL ITEMS HITS RECORD: Sales of promotional products - useful, often cheap things that bear a company logo like that mug on your desk - reached a record of more than $18-billion last year, according to Promotional Products Association International. They were up 4 percent, the association said. Promotional products are popular, industry leaders say, because the best of them stick around for months, subtly burning a brand name into a user's brain. (One literally burns a brand name into toast.)

Information from the Los Angeles Daily News, Bloomberg News, Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Associated Press was used in this report.

[Last modified June 9, 2006, 06:26:31]