With the political situation in the United States changing following the recent election of President Donald Trump, Disney is making some changes to how it operates its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Similar to many other major corporations across the US, including Google, GM, GE, Pepsi, Intel, PayPal, Chipotle, Comcast, 3M, Regeneron, and Philip Morris.
One of these changes is how it shows content warnings on some classic films such as "Peter Pan", "Pinocchio" and "Dumbo". Shortly after the launch of Disney+ in 2019, Disney started showing a disclaimer message on some classic films stating that
"This program is presented as originally created and includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of peoples or cultures".
A year later, it also made some of these classic films unavailable on Disney Kids profiles for younger viewers and changed its disclaimer to include more details, stating:
"This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.
Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe."
Here is a look at the current disclaimer on classic's such as "Peter Pan":
Disney+ is currently updating its policy once again and will be removing the disclaimer message that autoplays at the start of some older movies. However, it will still have a disclaimer message in the "Details" tab within the movie on Disney+, but with the original wording from 2019. It's also not clear if these classic films will return to the Disney Kids profiles since these movies have 0+ parental ratings, meaning they are suitable for everyone.
When the disclaimer messages were initially introduced, many classic Disney fans were unhappy, but ultimately, it was a middle ground to protect Disney, still offering the original version while trying not to upset anyone.
Since Bob Iger's return as CEO in late 2022, he has slowly been working to pull Disney back from its culture war with Republicans, especially after the whole "Don't Say Gay" situation in Orlando resulted in war with the governor Ron DeSantis and families avoiding Disney products. This led to a major problem for Disney's movies at the box office and guests not returning to their theme parks.
Over the past couple of years, Disney has been trying to reposition itself back into the middle ground, which has been working from a business point of view.
The recent change on Disney+ is part of a major change within Disney as it scales back its DEI programs, including removing its Reimagine Tomorrow and Stories Matter websites, which were referenced in the disclaimed. Also, any mention of these programs in the company's financial reports was also removed, similar to other major corporations.
Disney's chief human resources officer Sonia Coleman sent out a memo to employees outlining the changes:
For over 100 years, Disney has entertained and inspired generations of families from all walks of life around the world. We create entertainment that appeals to a global audience, and having a workforce that reflects the consumers we serve helps drive our business. With more than 230,000 dedicated employees and Cast Members in more than 40 countries across six continents, Disney has long believed that the rich variety of talents and experiences our employees bring to their work is good for our business and enhances the experience of our global consumers, audiences, and guests.
Creating a welcoming and respectful environment for our employees and guests is core to our company culture and our business. Our values -- integrity, creativity, collaboration, community, inclusion -- guide our actions and how we treat each other. Today I want to provide an update on how our values are embedded in our leader compensation programs, specifically our Other Performance Factors (OPFs), as well as share some of the work that has been underway to evolve our talent strategy consistent with these values.
Other Performance Factors (OPFs): Beginning this fiscal year, we are adding a new "Talent Strategy" factor to our executive compensation planning. This factor will assess how leaders uphold our company values, incorporate different perspectives to drive business success, cultivate an environment where all employees can thrive, and sustain a robust pipeline to ensure long-term organizational strength. This new factor represents an evolution of important concepts in the former Diversity & Inclusion OPF and will be used alongside our other two OPFs, "Storytelling & Creativity" and "Synergy."
As many of you know, we have spent the last year partnering with stakeholders across the company to discuss the evolution of our strategic framework for advancing our commitment to being welcoming, respectful, and inclusive in how we operate so we are the best place to work. The resulting framework -- which we released in December -- is designed to align our initiatives with our business goals and company values, centered around four key pillars:
People: We reach and attract the best, most talented people around the world and foster barrier-free talent processes for everyone.
Culture: We purposefully champion a culture where everyone belongs and can contribute to our business success.
Market Reach: We create unforgettable stories, experiences, and products that entertain and resonate globally.
Community: We learn from and support under-served communities by establishing and investing in impactful relationships with organizations and business stakeholders.
As we developed this new framework, we looked at ways to enhance our programs and practices to strengthen our workplace environment, in service of our business. While some of you are already familiar with what's new, we wanted to highlight some of the key developments:
New Online Destination: In December, we added our new framework to our corporate Impact website and the Belong hub on MyDisneyToday, with a focus on our above pillars and continued progress. This new framework, rooted in our efforts to enhance our employee experience, marks the evolution of the significant work done with Reimagine Tomorrow and succeeds that branding.
Employee Groups: Last year, we began the process of unifying and streamlining our global enterprise-wide Belonging Employee Resource Groups (BERGs) structure, and rebranded the "B" in BERG from "Business" to "Belonging" to highlight that our employee groups' role is focused on strengthening our employee community and workplace experience.
While this will continue to evolve, what won't change is our commitment to fostering a company culture where everyone belongs and everyone can excel, enabling us to deliver the globally appealing entertainment that drives our business.
Warm regards,
Sonia
Roger's Take: When Disney introduced the disclaimer messages on the classic films, there was a lot of negative reaction from fans, and there have regularly been social media posts with people asking why those warnings were popping up. With the political change sweeping across the US and also in other countries, Disney, like many major corporations, is moving its policies back to the middle to stop alienating customers on either side. No doubt this change is going to see some negative reactions from those that agree with the disclaimers and also see many celebrate that the disclaimers are gone. Either way, Disney will get some backlash, which is exactly why any company tries to stay out of these political situations.
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