Is the "Earful Tower" returning as the DHS icon? See 2013 merchandise for clues

Patricia Melton

Patricia Melton

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Can insiders out there chime in on this? I've been seeing some things I think are clues that the ugly bounce house sorcerer's hat at DHS will be removed in the future...because it's not appearing on the new merchandise and artwork that Disney's putting out.

Do you see how the "Earful Tower" is used to represent DHS in this poster? They could have used the sorcerer's hat bounce house...but they deliberately chose to use the Earful Tower instead.

I hope I'm not being too wishful in my thinking here...but does anyone else out there think that this is a clue that they might finally get rid of that ugly bounce house sorcerer's hat?
 
Patricia Melton

Patricia Melton

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looks like the forum would not allow me to post the image...but it is the January 2013 poster by Dave Keefer. It is red and white with very stylized graphics. At the bottom left of the poster is an image of the Cinderella Castle for the MK...the Earful Tower for DHS...and then on the right is the Tree of Life for DAK and Spaceship Earth for EPCOT.
 
Figgy1

Figgy1

Premium Member
Patricia Melton said:
Can insiders out there chime in on this? I've been seeing some things I think are clues that the ugly bounce house sorcerer's hat at DHS will be removed in the future...because it's not appearing on the new merchandise and artwork that Disney's putting out.

COVER_JAN_2013_poster-360x600.jpg


Do you see how the "Earful Tower" is used to represent DHS in this poster? They could have used the sorcerer's hat bounce house...but they deliberately chose to use the Earful Tower instead.

I hope I'm not being too wishful in my thinking here...but does anyone else out there think that this is a clue that they might finally get rid of that ugly bounce house sorcerer's hat?
Click to expand...
Don't know if or when they will get rid of it (lots of money gone if they do) That being said when we pull onto property seeing the Walt Disney World sign and the Earful Tower means we've arrived and can finally relax. They may make a gradual transition and see how the merchandising works out before a final decision.
 
G00fyDad

G00fyDad

Well-Known Member
This one?
COVER_JAN_2013_poster.jpg


I really hope that it does make a comeback as the park icon and that they remove the God-awful hat in the middle if the park. They could move this icon right into the hat's place and build up around it if they want to block the theater's views (not that the theater view has ever really been a valid argument for having the hat).
 
Patricia Melton

Patricia Melton

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
G00fyDad said:
This one?
COVER_JAN_2013_poster.jpg


I really hope that it does make a comeback as the park icon and that they remove the God-awful hat in the middle if the park. They could move this icon right into the hat's place and build up around it if they want to block the theater's views (not that the theater view has ever really been a valid argument for having the hat).
Click to expand...

Yes -- that is the poster I saw.

From a branding standpoint, it's just bizarre that TDO would allow this official poster to be made with the Earful Tower if they had no intention of getting rid of the Sorcerer's Hat at some point in the near future. They could have easily made the poster with the hat in place of the Earful Tower if they really were determined to keep this as the "icon" of DHS.

My family was in the restaurant business as franchise owners for many years. The reason this poster really jumps out at me is because back when we were franchise owners the companies we dealt with were very intense about the branding materials. I think during the time we were owners we went through two or three logo upgrades...and it was serious business to get rid of everything that had the "old" logo when the new ones were rolled out. That meant menus had to be thrown away, letterhead and envelopes needed to be trashed, tee shirts and uniforms had to go...it was a big waste of materials, to be honest. All this perfectly good stuff that we paid good money for had to go to the trash because corporate tweaked the logo font a little. As a franchise owner, we ate the costs of all this...but would have been penalized for using any of the "old logo" materials if corporate audited us with secret shoppers or a visit from the district office for an inspection.

I tell you this because corporations do not mess around with the branding and the logo stuff. Seeing this "Earful Tower" on the poster gave me a heart attack (in a good way!) because never, ever would the corporations we dealt with have allowed this to be printed if they didn't intend to go back to the "Earful Tower" as the DHS official logo at some point near term.

This tells me that no one in the branding/marketing office is fighting to keep the Sorcerer's Hat...so no one is zealously guarding that thing as the "official icon for DHS". This means the hat is, at very least, vulnerable.

Too bad someone can't come up with a structural study that shows the hat is dangerous in some way or was made with some materials that are toxic...if that was true, then you'd not only have no one protecting the hat but you'd also get the legal department pushing to have it removed so that no one sued over it in the future...which would be a perfect storm that would see that hat demolished.
 
pumpkin7

pumpkin7

Well-Known Member
dcibrando said:
They wouldn't have used the hat as the logo in that poster because the hat is the large icon centered in the poster.
Click to expand...

True, it probably would have looked a bit weird with it on there twice, but then again, why confuse people and put the Earful Tower on there at all? I mean, the other 3 are obvious, but to some people, they won't know what the Earful Tower is meant to represent.
Very strange. Very strange indeed. But down with the hat!
 
dgp602

dgp602

Well-Known Member
dcibrando said:
They wouldn't have used the hat as the logo in that poster because the hat is the large icon centered in the poster.
Click to expand...
As much as the hat is despised on this forum, I think to the average fan or visitor to WDW, the hat HAS become the symbol for DHS, just as much as the Tree of Life is to DAK or the Castle is to MK. Most don't remember the Earful Tower as being DHS symbol anymore and to re-brand it as DHS signiture icon at this point would cause too much confusion to the casual fan..
 
Patricia Melton

Patricia Melton

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
dcibrando said:
They wouldn't have used the hat as the logo in that poster because the hat is the large icon centered in the poster.
Click to expand...

If they wanted to use the hat as the logo of DHS then they would have used something else in the poster's central image...there was no requirement to have the hat there.

Nobody said "have that hat in the center and then don't use the hat as the icon for DHS".

The artist clearly got approval to use the Earful Tower as the DHS logo...and was then able to use the hat in the center of the poster because he wanted to.

The artist could not have just done whatever he wanted with the icon. He had to have permission to change the DHS icon branding.
 
Patricia Melton

Patricia Melton

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
dgp602 said:
As much as the hat is despised on this forum, I think to the average fan or visitor to WDW, the hat HAS become the symbol for DHS, just as much as the Tree of Life is to DAK or the Castle is to MK. Most don't remember the Earful Tower as being DHS symbol anymore and to re-brand it as DHS signiture icon at this point would cause too much confusion to the casual fan..
Click to expand...

I don't know if the "casual fan" is ever someone that Disney considers all that much.

But at the same time, they don't care about what the committed fans (like people on these boards) think either.

I've been a Disney fan my entire life but have only been active online for a few years; looking at what I've learned from reading something about DIsney online every day I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that really matters is what the current executives in power think. If someone calling the shots likes the Sorcerer's Hat, then it gets built...and it stays until an executive with enough power who hates the hat decides it needs to go.

I keep hoping that happens...but it looks like executives only get one or two things they can do from a personal power perspective. Tearing down the hat would cost money, so an executive would have to justify that spending. Would someone want to cash in his or her chips upfront by coming in and deciding THAT was the project he wanted to have as personal fulfillment?

I don't think so.

That's why I've always pinned my hopes on getting rid of the hat on it becoming either structurally unsound somehow or in some study being done showing it could potentially harm a guest and result in lawsuits. I also hope that one day the cost of performing maintenance/remodeling on it ends up being much more than the cost of tearing it down...in which case an executive who wants to make a name for himself will loudly proclaim that he's a genius for finding a way of saving money by tearing it down instead of paying to repaint it or rebuild a part of it that's become dangerous.

It won't ever be torn down because committed fans want it gone...and it won't ever be kept up because casual fans like it.

The only way I see it going is if it costs less to demolish it than keep it...OR if some new executive has something new he wants put there.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
dcibrando said:
They wouldn't have used the hat as the logo in that poster because the hat is the large icon centered in the poster.
Click to expand...
Ah, yes! But that is just another clue. You will notice that the hat is upside down. Like the American Flag, if it is flown upside down it means distress. So, ergo...upside down hat means distressed hat, means soon to be gone hat. Elementary my dear Watson! Don't you love detective work? :D

I was the first one to notice that Paul McCartney was dead back in the 60's. You can't got those things past me, I wanna tell you! ;)
 
FrankLapidus

FrankLapidus

Well-Known Member
dgp602 said:
As much as the hat is despised on this forum, I think to the average fan or visitor to WDW, the hat HAS become the symbol for DHS, just as much as the Tree of Life is to DAK or the Castle is to MK. Most don't remember the Earful Tower as being DHS symbol anymore and to re-brand it as DHS signiture icon at this point would cause too much confusion to the casual fan..
Click to expand...

I never considered the hat to be symbol of DHS, initially because I thought it was a temporary addition for the '100 Years of Magic' and assumed it wouldn't be around for as long as it has. Despite that I've always seen the tower as the symbol of DHS with the Chinese Theatre and Hollywood Tower Hotel as secondary symbols. Admittedly I'm not a casual fan and was a visitor to WDW when the tower was the symbol for DHS on merchandise, etc. so I can see your point but I'm looking forward to the hat being gone; I've never hated it but it's time for it to go.

That being said, I wonder what the future might hold for the Earful Tower if the Cars/Pixar expansion replaces the Backlot area.
 
Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious

Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
marni1971 said:
Once again, the hat will go sooner than later. It just needs enough suits to agree with the desire from Glendale.

Speaking of logos, just looked closer at our 2011 WDW Tour christmas tree decoration. It has Space Mountains logo on it.
Hong Kongs Space Mountain.
Click to expand...

Costs less to mass produce... Besides who will notice! Pffttt
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
WildcatDen said:
After all, the walrus was Paul. . .
Click to expand...
That totally clinched the argument! :D

There is one more obvious clue in that poster. The number 13 stuffed into the inverted brim of the aforementioned hat. The number 13 is considered bad luck, in many edumacated circles. In this case bad luck for the hat. Man that poster is practically screaming it don't you think?
 

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