I was playing around on Facebook today, and I saw a link to this news story which was posted by one of my friends (thanks for the link Mary). Okay (for those of you that can’t / don’t want to risk clicking on the link) so basically this lady was celebrating her 35th birthday with her 8 year old daughter and so they decided to dress up as princesses and go to Disneyland in Paris. She was told by a guard at the gate that she looked too much like a princess which may confuse kids into thinking that she worked at Disney. As a result, the woman was not gained admittance to the park.

Wow, talk about ridiculous. I know that protecting your brand and controlling your message is very important, but this is a perfect example of just going too far. What would it have hurt? So what if some kid thought she looked like a real princess? If she started getting unruly they could’ve always kicked her out then, just like they would with anyone else.  Really, if they think that she resembles one of the characters, then maybe they should’ve offered her a job instead.

The lady had even called the park before they showed up to see if it would be a problem, and they said it would be fine. I guess this means that there’s no policy against dressing up; perhaps this is a case of an overzealous guard. Who knows. In any case, the lesson here is that you need to understand all of your responsibilities as a marketer, not just one thing or the other. Disney is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, and something as innocent as dressing up as a princess should not just be tolerated, it should be celebrated.

What do you guys think?