Branding my Childhood

My Family has a brand. A brand so exciting to me that it is a little embarrassing to share all the details. It must take a brand with very strong equity to join a family. But the Walt Disney Company joined mine and has been in my life as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are from a trip to Disney World when I was three. Since that trip, summer vacations mean “the time to experience the magic of Disney”.   Did I get tired of us driving down to California or flying off to Florida year after year? I thought so when I was a little older, until our family went someplace else and it just wasn’t the same. On the Disney property everything is different, even my mom and dad light up like a toddlers every time we hurry off to the park.

To me Disney means: family time, happy times, something my family knows and could experience together with joy.  Our family connected here in a way that we couldn’t anywhere else. When we were not on vacation, our family with two girls and two parents would sit around, watch, and sing along with The Little Mermaid, my little sister’s favorite.   Sunday’s were the Magical World of Disney at 7pm. We even had Disney trivia night (Not kidding… this was a very competitive time at our house). We slept in 101 Dalmatian sheets, I had a Beauty and the Beast lunch pail, and most of my mother’s wardrobe has a Disney character on the front. Family car trips use Disney movie songs to pass the time as they were songs we all liked and know the words too (That’s right my friends, present tense). My sister even took time off from college to go work in magical fast food at Walt Disney World. We are a Disney family to the core.

Can a brand be magical, yes, I believe that it can. Am I obsessed with Disney? well…probably…but not enough to venture out of the house dressed in  a princess costume like it did when I was 5, but close.