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Why Do We Love That Disney Merchandise So Much? Here Are Three Reasons!

If there’s one thing that Disney Parks fans love as much as the attractions at their favorite theme parks . . . well, it’s the food.

But if there are two things that Disney Parks fan love as much as the attractions . . . it’s probably character meet-and-greats.

However, if there are three things that Disney Parks fans love as much as the attractions, then the merchandise is definitely up there amongst the top three.

Credit: Disney

From plush dolls to magnets to Christmas ornaments, t-shirts, and, of course, those ever-present pins and mouse ears, there’s just something about that Disney merchandise sold at the Parks that speaks to us, begging to be brought home and put on proud display.

But why is that the case? What is it about Disney merchandise that appeals to us and – perhaps more importantly – gets us to eagerly fork over our hard-earned money?

Various Disney scholars (and yes, there are Disney scholars!) have theorized a variety of reasons why this might be the case. Here are just three of those explanations to help you figure out why you can’t stop buying things at the Emporium, so you can explain to your family why both your soap and your soap dishes have Mickey Mouse on them.

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Credit: Disneyland Paris

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1) We buy Disney merchandise to show off our fandom

Scholar Rebecca Williams wrote the book on theme park fandom; literally, her book is titled Theme Park Fandom: Spatial Transmedia, Materiality and Participatory Culture! As somebody who’s thought more about the academic side of theme park fans than perhaps anybody else, her thoughts on fans’ love of merchandise are unsurprisingly fascinating and convincing.

To summarize – and simplify – her argument, Williams believes that theme park fans purchase and display merchandise in order to show off the depths and dimensions of our fandom. This can take the form of just showcasing the things we like, trying to prove we’re “bigger” fans than others, or both.

For example, she argues that, acquiring Disney merchandise in person, rather than online, “functions as a marker of symbolic and subcultural capital, imbuing the guest with higher levels of both by virtue of having been physically present in the parks.” Thus, some fans use their merch as a status symbol proving they were at the Parks during a particular time period or special event.

disney-toy

Credit: Disney Tips

Other fans, though, may feel that focusing on merchandise rather than experiences cheapens the point of a theme park and reinforces the idea that profit matters more than the ineffable “Disney magic.” This leads fans to create “hierarchies regarding ‘good’ and ‘bad’ acts of consumption and displaying forms of subcultural capital.”

However, in addition to just reaffirming our place and position within the hierarchy of Disney Parks fandom, we “use merchandise to represent and reinforce [our] own fan identities within the broader umbrella of Disney . . . fandom.” By wearing shirts, mouse ears, pins, and so forth that represent favorite characters, attractions, or other aspects of the Parks – think of the amount of merchandise dedicated just to the DOLE Whip! – we show off just what we like most about the Parks and tell other fans something about who we are and what we enjoy.

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2) We buy Disney merchandise to take the story home with us

If Rebecca Williams wrote the book on theme park fandom, former Imagineer David Younger wrote the book on theme park design (called, of course, Theme Park Design & The Art of Themed Entertainment)!

In his entry on “Attraction Stores,” Younger describes, “the theme park cliché of a gift shop attached to the exit of an attraction, included in the hope of capturing some of the enthusiasm of exiting riders and converting that into merchandise sales.” We all recognize this idea of “exiting through the giftshop” as being intrinsic to the modern Disney Park, and though there is certainly a mercenary element to this placement, the very fact that this trick works provides another explanation as to why we can’t resist that Disney merchandise.

As Younger explains, “Attraction Stores typically specialize in merchandise appropriate to the attraction,” thus becoming “ultimate stores for their attractions” in an “attempt to pull story elements from the attraction” into the store.

So, when we leave the elevator in Tower of Terror to find ourselves inside what could be the actual giftshop of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, we are more likely to buy a towel or bathrobe that looks like a part of the hotel’s merchandise line, thereby allowing us to take a part of the story home with us. Now we can vicariously relive being on Tower of Terror whenever we step out of the shower . . . though hopefully without the attendant thirteen-story drop!

tower-of-terror

Credit: Disney

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3) We buy Disney merchandise because collecting is fun

While Williams’ and Younger’s thoughts on Disney merchandise don’t in any way contradict each other, they both leave out the collecting aspect of buying Disney merchandise. In Understanding Disney, an academic book taking in the entirety of the Walt Disney Company, media scholar Janet Wasko explains that, “Buying and selling Disney merchandise has developed as a major activity for many collectors around the world and is a typical preoccupation of Disney fanatics.”

Collectors, much like fans of Disney Parks, are often viewed askance by some parts of society. The idea of collecting something – whether it be stamps, coins, comic books, or, yes, Disney merchandise – is viewed as an obsessive behavior that goes hand-in-hand with some kind of antisocial disorder. Though this may be true for some collectors, the truth is that most people collect things simply because it’s a fun activity. Hunting down a new piece of merchandise that fits in with the things we collect is an exciting activity, and looking at our collections at home fills us with joy.

For the many, many fans who buy Disney merchandise because it goes into a larger collection, that merchandise becomes part of a fun activity that is separate from – thought of course linked to – the experience of going to the Parks, themselves. This hobby can be fulfilling and enlivening and a way to keep our theme park fandom alive even when we’re far away from the Parks.

EPCOT 40th Anniversary Merchandise

Credit: Disney

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These three theories are, of course, just a few of the explanations as to why we love buying that Disney merchandise. Others abound, ranging from being simple-minded dupes fooled by corporate tricks to art-lovers who want to enjoy Park aesthetics when at home, but ultimately there are as many reasons for buying merchandise as there are people buying it!

So why do you buy that oh-so-tempting Disney merch?

About Andrew Friedenthal