With city centres losing attractiveness, post-World War II America was in need of family-friendly meeting places for middle-class people in suburbs. This gave a push towards the creation of theme parks which went hand in hand with the rise of shopping and consumption becoming a part of people’s leisure activities. The first Disneyland theme park was opened on July 17, 1955 in Anaheim in the neighbourhood of Los Angeles. Disneyland provided an illusion of a different world that consisted of stores, restaurants and different themed attractions offering the possibility for leisure and consumption. Disneyland became another big sales driver for the Disney company. Tangible goods and services were purchased by consumers within Disneyland’s fictional settings. Shopping had become a part of entertainment or so-called “shoptainment”.
Mickey Mouse plush toy merchandise
The opening of theme parks gave Disney the possibility to expand not only in the media market, but also in the area of retail and services. Disney was the company that was at the lead of merchandising and was first to use this technique throughout their business strategy selling character licences to other external companies. Disney started to merchandise Mickey Mouse already after his debut in Steamboat Willie. As a result, he appeared on school writing tablets and handkerchiefs. This proved to be successful and with the growing popularity of Mickey Mouse in the 1930s it accelerated sales.
Disney's cooperation with external businesses and those businesses' willingness to exploit Disney characters' popularity led to the creation of Mickey Mouse Clubs in the 1930s. The main objective of these clubs was to boost sales and audiences and at the same time make people consume Disney merchandise. Mickey Mouse Clubs were held in the form of Saturday morning programs in movie theatres. They offered a mix of talent contests, and character-building exercises interspersed with Disney shorts. These clubs became particularly popular with parents looking for entertainment and leisure activities for their kids. The Mickey Mouse Clubs were the main driver of the transformation of Disney shorts into advertisements for Mickey Mouse branded consumer products (Clément, 2018).