Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
I think my response to that post is sorta split into two different lines of thinking:
1. I think the theme park market has evolved in the last 47 years. When the very idea of a theme park was novel, that was enough for almost everyone... just the "what", not so much the "how" or "why". The guest experience itself was satisfaction enough. As we've seen giant mountains spring up over the years and entire theme parks being built, I think the audience has matured over the years to a point where more of us care about the "how" and "why". A similar concept is thrown around (vaguely and randomly) in the sports world with the idea of a "smart" audience who gets the rules and appreciate little plays versus maybe an expansion market audience who is at the arena/stadium more for the spectacle of it all.
2. The world in general is a little different now than in 1965
. I think Disney has simply adapted their marketing to the Internet/cable TV age. That Disneyland TV show probably aired once or twice. Now, there is just so much more space to fill on the airwaves; there is a huge demand for content and it gets repeated over and over. That's without even mentioning the petabytes of information and video available 24/7 online. We have an unparalleled amount of choice in media today. I don't feel like Disney is beating us over the head, because in the end we all choose to consume the information. The little preview section of the guidebook probably had a piece of concept art and maybe a paragraph about each attraction. If you don't want to know more than that, why keep reading? It's like a person who doesn't want movie spoilers reading every news article about said movie.
1. I think the theme park market has evolved in the last 47 years. When the very idea of a theme park was novel, that was enough for almost everyone... just the "what", not so much the "how" or "why". The guest experience itself was satisfaction enough. As we've seen giant mountains spring up over the years and entire theme parks being built, I think the audience has matured over the years to a point where more of us care about the "how" and "why". A similar concept is thrown around (vaguely and randomly) in the sports world with the idea of a "smart" audience who gets the rules and appreciate little plays versus maybe an expansion market audience who is at the arena/stadium more for the spectacle of it all.
2. The world in general is a little different now than in 1965