“And don’t get me started when it comes to college football,” my friend continued, “with the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, FedEx Orange Bowl, Citi Rose Bowl, and Allstate Sugar Bowl.”
OK, I get it. Companies are looking for any venue possible to position their name and create brand recognition with the buying public. How much do you think Nike paid Michael Jordan to wear its swoosh? A lot. And you can hardly see the color of a NASCAR racecar with all the corporate logos plastered from bumper to bumper.
Does it bother me? Not at all. I don’t even notice it. I am such a product of the advertising age, it all blends into the landscape. In any case, I would rather have private companies fund these activities instead of paying for them through tax dollars. But, more than that, I grew up at a place that celebrated private enterprise and set the bar for corporate sponsorships – Disneyland.
It cost about $17 million to build Disneyland in 1955, but Walt was still running short of cash to finish the park the way he wanted, and he had to postpone building some of the rides he had in mind. That’s when the sponsorship idea came to him. Why not take a page out of the TV advertising playbook? I grew up in the pre-cable TV dark ages, when every show was “brought to you by” somebody. So, why not extend that same concept to the financing of an amusement park? Let companies pay for some of the rides in exchange for attaching their name to it. It is a win-win strategy. The cost of the park could be shared by “advertisers” in exchange for “face time” with patrons. Walt pitched the idea to some of America’s biggest companies. It is estimated that about 33 corporations signed on to sponsor attractions when Disneyland first opened its doors.
When I was a kid almost every ride, attraction, and eating establishment at Disneyland bore the name of a corporate sponsor. With familiar American company names at every turn, the park seemed more like a real community than a land of make-believe. As I walked down Main Street I passed by the Global Van Lines Locker Service, Sunkist Citrus House, Wurlitzer Music Hall, Coca Cola Refreshment Corner and the Carnation Plaza Gardens. (Trivia moment: Of the 33 original Disneyland sponsors, only three still have an active presence in the park today. Can you name them? See the end of this post for the answer.)
Corporate sponsors of Disney rides were, and still are, commonplace. The Santa Fe Railroad sponsored the Disneyland train, AT&T hosted Circarama, Atlantic Richfield Oil put their name to the Autopia, Monsanto’s name could be seen on three attractions: 
the Hall of Chemistry, House of the Future, and Adventures Thru Inner Space.
The list of sponsors goes on:
Company - Attraction
Kaiser Aluminum - Hall of Aluminum Fame
Dutch Boy Paints - Color Gallery
Bell System - America the Beautiful
General Electric - Carousel of Progress
National Car Rentals - Horseless Carriage
Chicken of the Sea - Pirate Ship
Dole Fresh Fruit Company - Enchanted Tiki Room
Goodyear - People Mover
Bank of America - It’s a Small World
Lincoln Savings - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
Do you remember the “Kodak Photo Spots” throughout the park? Strategically located signs alerted guests to a particularly picturesque vista that showcased the park and would win the family photographer praise for his artistic eye.
Now, anywhere I travel around the country, if I see a scene that cries to be photographed, I declare, “Now, there’s a Kodak Photo Spot.” I am sure that Kodak marketing idea has paid for itself many times over.In some cases for me the sponsor’s name became synonymous with the ride itself. Monsanto hosted the Adventure Thru Inner Space (now replaced with Star Tours), but it was easier for me to just call it the “the Monsanto ride”. To me the brand name and the product had become synonymous, like Scotch Tape or Kleenex – an advertiser’s dream come true.
Some of the companies who sponsored rides would have remained a mystery to me had it not been for their participation at Disneyland. At the tender age of seven I stood in line for the brand new Submarine Voyage. General Dynamics, builder of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarines, had agreed to sponsor this attraction. I thought that was pretty cool. As we weaved back and forth through the line, we could see large placards displaying the name of General Dynamics with illustrations and diagrams explaining how submarines are built and how they work. The memory was indelible. To this day I have never seen the name of General Dynamics anywhere else, but I will always know it as the builder of America’s atomic submarines.
One of the most shameless (but thoroughly delightful) melding of sponsor and attraction was the General Electric Carousel of Progress, which ran from 1965-1973. Not only did GE host the ride, the entire journey featured the evolution of electricity in the home, from the late 1800s to the present and beyond – showing how much electrical appliances, specifically GE appliances, have benefited American life. As a sponsor, you can’t get much more mileage from a ride than for the ride to brag about you the entire time.
By the way, the Carousel of Progress holds two points of distinction. First, it was reportedly Walt Disney’s favorite ride in the park, and second, the show holds the record for having more performances than any other stage presentation in the world.Competition among sponsors can be a tricky thing at Disneyland. When I was younger, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola served as sponsors. Pepsi was the long-standing host of the Golden Horseshoe Revue, and Coca-Cola still reigns at the Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner on Main Street. To placate both companies, Disney decreed that while both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola drinks would be sold at the park, they would not be sold at the same venues.
Sometimes sponsors have flexed enough muscle to force a Disneyland ride name change. When United Airlines was negotiating to become the sponsor of the Astro-Jet ride in Tomorrowland, it objected to the name of the ride (“Astro-Jet”), which it claimed constituted unfair free advertising for its arch rival American Airlines, who called its fleet “Astro-jets”. Disney conceded and renamed the ride “Rocket Jets”.
I have noticed that several attractions at Disneyland have no corporate sponsors. I wonder why not. It seems an ideal opportunity for some enterprising company to capture the public’s eye. Of course, you would need just the right match-up between sponsor and attraction – you know, the way McDonnell Douglas sponsoring the Mission to Mars is such a logical fit. I have some suggestions for other attractions that would make the perfect marriage. How about these:
The Frontierland Shooting Gallery – Sponsored by the NRA
The Haunted Mansion – Sponsored by Forest Lawn Mortuary
Mark Twain Steam Boat – Sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride – Sponsored by NASCAR
Grand Canyon Diorama – Sponsored by The Sierra Club
Pirates of the Caribbean – Sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service (they pillage and plunder and ransack and loot . . .)
The whole sponsorship program at Disneyland was borne out of necessity, when ideas were big but money was short. But, you know, we are facing tough economic times today, and it seems money is short again. I worry about businesses suffering as people tighten their belts and spend less. That kind of “tight wallet” thinking is bound to hit Disneyland hard, the Temple of discretionary spending. If Disneyland went under just think of the ripple effect – the jobs lost, the hospitality industry, the food vendors, the souvenir manufacturers, the landscapers, the whole city of Anaheim, oh the humanity! But wait – if private capital dries up, there is always a bail-out hope from the federal government. That is all the rage these days, from banks to auto makers to the entire real estate world. Disneyland is too big to fail. If that day ever came, the government would simply have to come to the rescue. If that occurred, Disneyland would finally have the ultimate corporate sponsor, and it would be fitting for the entrance sign over the park to read:
Welcome to Disneyland
Brought to You By
The United States of America!
Answer to the Trivia Question above: Coca-Cola, Carnation, and the Eastman Kodak Company.)
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