It's just this nasty streak that comes up occasionally in Disney (and I'm sure most) fandom of picking hate figures and ridiculing them mercilessly that rubs me the wrong way. Particularly in this case when half the threads are people waxing lyrical about the intricacies of what constitutes good theming, and the other half is people mocking someone at WDI as ridiculous for his posts explaining colour and design choices for a new store as if they were important.
And here is where it all gets muddy because it seems that there are two different "people" here. First there is Zach Riddley who is apparently a man who apparently works for Disney Imaginieering. I'm sure this Zach Riddley has thoughts and ambitions and goals in life. I'm sure he has feelings, too.
Then there is thezachriddley - a puppet Instagram account that unfortunately for Zach Riddley is named after him and is using his likeness as a PR outlet.
Thezachriddley may have started out as the personal account of Zach Riddley but clearly, that is not the case, today. It's open to debate whether the actual Zach Riddley is even involved in the management of this account at this point. Does he write
any of what goes along with these pictures?
Who's to say?
That would all sound very tin-foil-hat-ish if not for what we saw with the Mexican pavilion post and honestly, I'm relieved to know what I know now because that explains a
lot.
With that, I'd say that a lot of people's angst and rage is directed more at the thezachriddley account and Disney PR rather than the actual guy Zach Riddley whether they know it or not since honestly, we don't know what his own unfiltered words even look like for sure.
It doesn't really justify any of the hate directed specifically at this figure but just the same, this seems like a problem Disney has themselves created.
Whether he had a willing and eager hand in giving up his personal voice and personal reputation to be managed by his employer or whether he was sort of backed into it is another story but just the same, it's not him. We (some of us, at least) understand it's not him and I at least feel a little better knowing it's not him when I see some of this.
But yeah, the people that don't know this and continue to essentially internet bully what they believe is an individual is absolutely wrong.
For me though, I just replace every "Zach" or "The Zach" in these threads with "Disney" (shorthand for Disney PR), especially now that the game has been confirmed by their own sloppy handling of the account that revealed the secret.
I mean really, how silly and kind of stupid, as an entertainment company - a company that makes their money off pretend super heroes and resorts and cruise ships to stoop to the kind of outlandish nonsense you see in national politics to try to bolster their brand?
Why not just do this on their blog or make an official Disney Imagineering account for it?
Is this really what it's come to? Is that what brand management for a successful multi-national corporation boils down to in this era?
Uncle Walt may have been a different persona from the actual private Walt Disney but there is little doubt that Walt Disney was in control of it.
Dose anyone doubt Joe Rhodes was in control of his own narrative - even if he was given guard rails to work within? I mean, I think that's probably half of what got him the job at Virgin Galactic.
This is not that.
