NBC Poll Finds Disney Approval Falling with American Public

We don’t normally cover political polling here at That Park Place. That doesn’t fall inside the boundaries of what we cover here and for good reason: we’re supposed to be covering the news that should be fun. So we’re as surprised as you might be that we need to cover a political poll this morning. But once you note what the political poll is showing, you’ll understand how this directly impacts entertainment, movies, streaming and theme parks.

A Hart Research Associates / Public Opinion Strategy poll funded by NBC has found that The Walt Disney Company’s negative perception in the American public has exploded. While you might expect to see a politician pull relatively high negative opinions from those who hold differing stances, you tend not to expect that out of a corporation which has vested interest in maintaining popularity with people of all political persuasions. However, with the politicization of Disney in the last years, catapulting forward in the last few months, Disney now finds itself in typical territory of divisive figures.

If you’re aiming at producing children’s content that all families can trust, that’s not good…

Here’s what they found on Page 9 of the report:

Ron DeSantis
May 2022 ………………………………… 20% Very positive, 8% Positive, 15% Neutral, 6% Negative, 20% Very negative, 31% Unfamiliar
Disney
May 2022 ………………………………… 15% Very positive, 18% Positive, 30% Neutral, 15% Negative, 15% Very negative, 7% Unfamiliar

My gosh these numbers are absolutely horrible for Disney… and they are like a rising tide in that there’s no way to avoid the spillover that this will have. If the general American public has a 30% negative view of Disney and a 60% neutral-to-negative view of the company, there’s little way this can be reality without Disney’s revenue taking a hit in the future.

The polling includes a comparison to Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, likely to check and see how the dust up between Disney and Florida is impacting the two entities. If we check to see how the public is responding, DeSantis has a 28% positive reception nationally. However, his unfamiliarity level is quite high as many Americans don’t follow along with national news. DeSantis has a 26% negative reception. That means he’s +2% nationally. Disney, meanwhile, grabs a 33% positive rating and a 30% negative stat. Disney, therefore, has a +3% standing nationally. The problem is that whereas politicians have very divisive receptions as an inherent part of the political system, corporations are not in the business of alienating their consumers. Having nearly equal numbers of people shifting to a negative view of your company is horrendous.

https://twitter.com/AaronParnas/status/1525871828681506819

Of course, you can see the ridiculous spin that is being attempted in the tweet above with 28K likes. Yes, Disney currently has a +1% rating nationally than a state governor. What should that rating be? Well, ideally it would be tremendously higher than nearly any politician on the planet. If it is even close (and in this case it’s a virtual tie), your corporation is perceived divisively — just like how nearly all politicians are perceived divisively. In politics, if you win by 51% you win it all. On Wall Street, if you had 90% of the population buying your goods and it starts dropping to equally liked and equally disliked, you’re falling far behind your competition.

What do you think Sony’s national disapproval looks like? How about Universal Studios? What about Dollywood?

According to Disney news blog, DFB, this finding is surprising.

“In terms of net favorability, DeSantis ended with a +2 rating, and Disney ended with a +3 rating. While both had positive favorability, it’s surprising that Disney was only 1 point higher than DeSantis.”

Now we really like DFB and think the people who work on that site are fantastic. However, in this case, we have to say that we’re not surprised at all… and if you’ve been reading our site you’re likely not surprised at all either. Becoming political means you take on all the negatives of political entities. Whether you think Disney has been right in taking strong and divisive political positions, there is no avoiding that they have definitely made that shift. When a corporation for family entertainment takes positions on kindergarten classroom instruction of controversial topics, as well as pledging to fight for mastectomies and castrations of minors, there’s no way to do that without damaging your public perception. You can reframe all of it to be “don’t say gay” or “minor reassignment,” but it doesn’t seem to be confusing the public as to the controversial manner of these issues.

If you’ve been following many of the mainstream news organizations, access media and Disney blogs, you likely would have never seen this coming. Credit to DFB for reporting on it at all — they didn’t have to cover something such as this. Clearly the narrative that has been promulgated by some of the sites out there is simply wrong. Disney has waded into a contentious issue that is driving their negatives sky-high for a corporation that doesn’t produce widgets… they produce family-friendly content.

Unfortunately for Disney, it doesn’t appear their corporate structure is prepared to reverse course. That means this is just the beginning. So as we watch their Disney+ ratings drop for the quarter yet unreported in earnings, as well as watch steep drops for their box office properties, we have to wonder…

… what happens at Disney World when the international guests dry up? Will the American public with these negatives continue to come back to the once most magical place on Earth?

For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place! As always, drop a comment down below and let us know what you think about the politicization of Disney.