Over the past few years, Disney (DIS) has faced sharp criticism from conservative consumers for going “woke.”
The messaging in Disney’s films and TV shows has consistently been scrutinized, and the company has faced backlash for being overly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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For example, in 2021, when Disney unveiled the cast for its upcoming “Snow White” film, it received heat for having an ethnically diverse cast and even faced boycott threats from some consumers.
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Last year, billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, who aimed and failed to land several seats on Disney’s board of directors in April, also criticized Disney’s recent messaging in its content.
“People go to watch a movie or a show to be entertained,” said Peltz in an April interview with the Financial Times. “They don’t go to get a message.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger even rebuked recent “woke” backlash and defended the company’s messaging in its films and TV shows in an interview with CNBC last April.
“The term woke is thrown around rather liberally,” Iger said in the interview. “I think a lot of people don’t even understand really what it means. The bottom line is that infusing messaging as a sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining.”
Disney switches gears on DEI initiatives
As the anti-woke movement continues to grow legs, especially after President Donald Trump took office and cut federal DEI programs, Disney has opted to scale back some of its DEI efforts.
In an internal memo sent to employees, Disney Chief Human Resources Officer Sonia Coleman announced that at the start of this fiscal year, the company would be cutting its “Diversity & Inclusion” performance factor, which evaluates executive compensation.
Disney will instead replace it with a new “Talent Strategy” factor, which will be similar to its “Diversity & Inclusion” one, but will focus more on assessing how leaders “uphold company values” and “drive business success.”
The company will also be axing its Reimagine Tomorrow initiative, which first launched in 2021. According to Disney’s website, the program was focused on “amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories as well as championing the importance of accurate representation in media and entertainment.”
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The memo also revealed that Disney has rebranded its “Business” Employee Resource Groups to “Belonging” Employee Resource Groups.
Coleman said that these changes have been in the works at Disney over the past year.
“As many of you know, we have spent the last year partnering with stakeholders across the company to discuss the evolution of our strategic framework for advancing our commitment to being welcoming, respectful, and inclusive in how we operate so we are the best place to work. The resulting framework — which we released in December — is designed to align our initiatives with our business goals and company values.”
In addition to these workplace changes, Disney will also replace the current content advisory disclaimer that appears on some of its older content on Disney+.
Some of Disney’s older movies such as “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan” have a content advisory that warns viewers that the film “includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of peoples or cultures.”
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This current message will be replaced with one saying, “This program is presented as originally created and may contain stereotypes or negative depictions.”
Disney’s latest SEC filing reveals more changes
The changes from Disney come after it also quietly erased a few of its DEI initiatives from its 2024 SEC 10-K filing.
The filing no longer mentions Disney’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” program, and its “Disney Look” appearance guidelines was also dropped from the filing. The guidelines outline appearance standards for its costumed and non-costumed cast members.
In Disney’s 10-K filing for 2023, it mentions “employee development programs and fellowships for underrepresented talent,” as well as “innovative learning opportunities, which spark dialogue among employees, leaders, Disney talent and external experts.”
These details were scrubbed from Disney’s 2024 10-K filing.
Disney did, however, introduce a new initiative called “Heroes Work Here” in its latest 10-K filing. The initiative aims to “hire, train and support U.S. military veterans.”
Disney’s decision to scale back DEI comes after several major companies such as Walmart, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson and Tractor Supply, axed their DEI programs last year amid consumer pressure and legal concerns surrounding the policies. McDonald’s, Amazon, and Meta also followed in their footsteps in early January.
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