In late January, Disney launched a promotion that involves marketing reps visiting mothers and newborns in maternity wards in hundreds of hospitals to promote the Disney brand. Disney reps provide mothers with a free Disney Cuddly Bodysuit for their newborn and urge them to sign up for e-mail alerts from DisneyBaby.com. The company plans to give away more than 200,000 bodysuits to mothers by May.
To help roll out the program, Disney is partnering with Our365, a photography firm that specializes in producing portraits of mothers and newborns and has contracts with nearly 600 hospitals.
Disney CEO Bob Iger told the New York Times that the campaign is simply providing new parents with easy access to a trusted brand. "If ever there was an opportunity for a trusted brand to enter a market and provide a better product and experience, it's this," said Iger. "I'm extremely excited about it."
The maternity ward campaign is part of Disney's launch of Disney Baby apparel, which will be sold at Amazon.com starting in May and later at brick-and-mortar stores. Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products, told the New York Times that "apparel is only a beachhead" in Disney's pursuit of the market for baby products.
But not everyone thinks the campaign is a good idea. National child advocacy group Children Now says the marketing effort may be crossing a boundary when it enters a hospital setting.
"The larger question is whether there are any safe spaces still available to children and a hospital should be considered a safe space," said Jeff McIntyre, director of national policy for Children Now. "People have to remember this is a medical setting and that having a child can be a cautious moment because not everything goes the way it should every time."
McIntyre said he understands the reasoning behind Disney's approach and that the trend in marketing is to target children at a younger and younger age. "But I think hospitals have to consider their ethical responsibility to patients."
To date, it's hard to tell how many hospitals Disney has visited, since the campaign is still just a few weeks old. The Winnie Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando contracts with Disney partner Our365 for portraits of newborns but isn't involved with Disney's campaign, at least not yet.
"It may be something we do in the future but we're not working with Disney right now or giving away products," said hospital spokesman Geo Morales.
Overall, the Disney campaign raises interesting issues. Marketing executives can point to the fact that mothers are receiving free apparel and services compliments of Disney, a trusted brand. But hospitals also have to look at the ethical issues raised by Children Now, which could take them into a gray area they may not want to enter.