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Disney's Punishment of Honest Media/Reviews
- Thread starter Sundown
- Start date
Minnesota disney fan
Well-Known Member
I loved Allears when the two Deb's were running it. I even met Deb once and had dinner with her at Epcot, as I was a contributing writer on Seniors at disney. I was really impressed with Deb and with AllEars back then. Since then, I have tried to like it several times, but it just seems like a big conglomeration, more commercial, and lacking that personal touch of the Deb's.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I honestly don't think anything will ever surpass La Nouba, it was perfection to me. The look, the sound, the feel and everything about it was brilliant (well maybe the clowns weren't the best).
The three little Asian girls in La Nouba rocked the house! We saw the show 2x fueled by Cuban espresso from Bongos back in the day.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
We used to like the overpriced pizza place opposite AMC before the show.
I think that was Wolfgang Puck's place. Inside and outside eating, I saw him in person when he visited. He's very short.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
I think you're right it was Wolfgang Pucks.
chriskbrown
Active Member
Hum - I use to be all over AllEars when I started online with Disney; Deb was a real treasure trove of very good, honest information. The reviews on her site of the resorts were really good. I honestly have not been to that site much at all.
I actually do follow Pete and the DIS; the tend to provide some of more straight forward reviews, and occasionally Pete can go off on WDW. I am kind of surprised he does not get some angry letters from them. His rant over the Grand Floridian was epic. He and his crew are pretty frank
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
With the steady rise in pricing there is a steady increase in expectation. The frequency of guests demanding more and acting entitled has steadily increased that coupled with reduced services, well simply not a good mix. Then the variety of guests (demographic) is also constantly changing so the feedback is likewise changing and not always flattering.
spock8113
Well-Known Member
All this sounds too familiar: Certain countries and political figures use this same brain-bending tactic. Disney has struggled to remain apolitical, but instances like this give their views away. Don't say anything contrary to what may be fact. "Think for yourself" gets bantered about and the old adage, "If you tell a big enough lie enough times, it is eventually believed" by oh, too many. Draw your own opinion and believe what is in front of your eyes, not what you want to hear.
Be careful they don't take away your press pass to shut you up!
Be careful they don't take away your press pass to shut you up!
I used to think some of the budget posters on DIS would run over their MIL to pick up.a nickel. I now realize I was off by 4 cents.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I didn't read through this thread, because the whole idea that Vlog media is the same as news media puzzles me. These sites were established by Disney Fans and as such Disney found it cost affective to use them to spread positive views of anything Disney. These people aren't non-biased individuals, they are using their "media" to achieve free perks from Disney. Perks like admission to the parks, first experience on new attractions, meals, travel and accommodations free from Disney. In exchange Disney expects them to shed a good light on whatever they are doing and are considered employees of Disney. Free agents that provide a PR service for Disney.
Like any other jobber, they are expected to be positive and give Disney what they are paying for via perks, positivity, etc. If they start to badmouth the guy paying their way they lose their value. If they can't or won't provide what Disney needs to have happen, they simply stop paying those people for that service. Again Disney Vloggers are not news people that should be reporting good and bad, they are paid to make Disney look almost flawless. Their vlogs attract hits from other Disney Fans and the more hits they get the more the vlog is able to attract advertisers to their sites which is money in the vloggers pockets. They need access to Disney far more then Disney needs them. So if they can no longer provide what Disney wants then they get replaced. Simple and not wrong. It is what the Vloggers signed up for either in writing or implied agreements.
Like any other jobber, they are expected to be positive and give Disney what they are paying for via perks, positivity, etc. If they start to badmouth the guy paying their way they lose their value. If they can't or won't provide what Disney needs to have happen, they simply stop paying those people for that service. Again Disney Vloggers are not news people that should be reporting good and bad, they are paid to make Disney look almost flawless. Their vlogs attract hits from other Disney Fans and the more hits they get the more the vlog is able to attract advertisers to their sites which is money in the vloggers pockets. They need access to Disney far more then Disney needs them. So if they can no longer provide what Disney wants then they get replaced. Simple and not wrong. It is what the Vloggers signed up for either in writing or implied agreements.
Kingoglow
Well-Known Member
Everything you said is true. Just to catch you up, we have been talking how the fact that the this was called a 'Media Event' and how all the Vloggers get to say Disney invited us to their Media Event in their videos, and how that language (Media Event) subverts the audiences expectation.
Not everyone out there consuming YouTube is savvy enough to realize that these reviews were part of a quid pro quo arrangement and not unbiased; which is typically what one would expect from a Media Event.
SilentWindODoom
Well-Known Member
Much like how I sit back often and wonder as I look around at the world "Wait, don't y'all actually stop and independently think about something when you hear it and double-check before parroting it?", I find myself wondering... does everyone not when they hear "media event" just know that's shorthand for advance preview and what's media and what's not media is more dependent on the person themselves?
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
If you are invited to a Disney event, you must follow their rules or risk not being invited the next time. So if someone invited by Disney wants to give an independent review of something, they are risking their invite to things in the future.
Getting to be the first to see something is really cool, getting free food and drink is really cool, and in the case of the Starcruiser, getting a chance to experience it something very few will be able to do.
So I totally understand the influencers being nice and playing by Disney’s Rules.
By now, folks who actually paid got to take a cruise on the Starcruiser. The verdict (as I see on YouTube) , it’s really cool, they have done a really great job creatively, the food could be better, but if the cost if this cruise is a significant cost to you, it’s not worth the price for what you are getting.
That said, everyone is different and are free to make their own choices no matter what the influencers say.
SilentWindODoom
Well-Known Member
Hehehe. I think I got mistakenly quoted here. All I said was I'm surprised people would mistake vloggers for actual media members because of the use of a term for early access events.
Brad Bishop
Well-Known Member
I think it's just the nature of the beast.
You have these vloggers who love Disney, do a line of pixie dust several times a day, and want to share that with others. They start off being VERY positive/excited/etc.
They gain some traction on YouTube and Disney recognizes this and uses them as tools to encourage people to visit Disney parks. They invite them to events and give them freebies, all at far less cost than actual advertising (and probably better results than advertising).
Eventually, it's whispered in their ear that they have to "play ball". I think most of them still go along with it because: "Disney is such a great company! I love Disney!"
At some point they have something negative to say about some experience and they're likely reminded again to play ball.
Some of them get flushed out like lentesta, Clowfish folks, and .
Even then, if you look at , you get some interesting bits about the goings on at Disney but it quickly turns into a showcase for:
- upcoming (upcharge) events
- new restaurants
- new merch
- new food (cupcakes seem to be a big deal)
I suppose you could argue that this is helpful information to those who watch but, at the same time, it's free advertising for Disney. This is the kind of stuff that they used to have on the Disney Channel to encourage you to go before they made it, "The Boy Meets World Channel".
I'm not condemning any of these people. I'm just saying it is what it is. Not really even condemning Disney on this one.
If I owned a business I'd probably be careful about negative feedback, too. At the same time, however, you do want to listen to the feedback (both good and bad) and discern what you're doing right and what you need to improve. I don't know that Disney does this and it feels more like they just want everything to be expressed as, "Magical".
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
Can't disagree with most of that to be honest, a pretty fair assessment. One thing I stand by on 90% of the vloggers content I saw from the comped event was the pictures spoke for themselves. We'd been told for months by many that this was a disaster, an embarrassment, awful and how the guests will be demanding refunds upon arrival. However virtually all the vloggers had long unedited shots of large parts of the ships and many long clips of the actors performing.
It became abundantly clear that the idea the inside was themed to a level of a Chucky Cheese playpen was completely debunked, as was the notion that there were no characters or meaningful story lines and things to do. All of a sudden we could SEE that it wasn't as many had 'guessed' and sold as fact. You could see it wasn't like people had said and the vloggers opinion meant so much less than normal as you saw for yourself.
Whilst it's a valid point that a vlogger has reasons to lie or embellish, a small number on here deep down knew that this was far better than they had hoped and went into overdrive on the "We can't believe what the vloggers say" to postpone the inevitable truthful reviews which followed pretty much following the media ones. If you watched most of the videos from the vloggers and muted their opinions, you were still left with a fun (yet overpriced to most) event to see and judge yourself. Most of the commentary at the end when they gave their views was already redundant as we'd already realised this wasn't like many on here had said.
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