“Good teenagers, take off your clothes.” in Aladdin.
The penis on the cover of Little Mermaid.
Dust spelling S-E-X in The Lion King.
Yes, everyone at one point or another has heard of those magical “subliminal messages” in Disney films.
But as I’ve been watching TV lately, I’ve noticed a slight shift in Disney’s master plan of trying to invoke sex on the world.
Take, for instance, one of the current Disneyworld commercials (suspiciously missing from their website). A kid talks about all the fun stuff he did with his parents while on his magical Walt Disney World vacation, and then slips in this anvil:
“This is my baby brother. Mom says he’s her little souvenir from Disney World!”
Kid, oblivious. Mom, laughs. Audience, jaws on the floor.
If that wasn’t wacky enough, there’s the new Visa Check Card “win a private party for you, 7 of your guests, AND ALL THE OTHER WINNERS” commercial. Starts out with the standard “Couple looks like they’re going to get it on” pose, husband says “Shall I put on some music to get us in the mood?”, wife nods, and he puts on Bippityboppityboo and they start playing with the kids celebrating having won said vacation thing. It’s cute, we’ve seen this misdirection in tons of ads before.
But then the punchline of the ad? One of the kids is on a carousel with what appears to be his grandparents, and again, damnable Bippityboppityboo starts playing. The kid says to the old folks:
“This song gets Mommy and Daddy IN THE MOOD!”
And the grandparents just casually quirk their eyebrows, as if to say, “Doesn’t it get everyone in the mood?”
So much for being subliminal.