Mickey Mouse or Why New Coke Failed

Laura M. Holson writing at the NYTimes suggests that the Disney Corporation either retire or "improve" Mickey Mouse.

Do you all remember New Coke? Well, here's the story. New Coke was designed because Pepsi was beating Coke. So Coke monkeyed with the formula and took it on the road. In Blind Taste Tests, everybody loved New Coke. It was the mack-daddy of blind taste tests (sorry about my odd phrasing there, but I have to use the phrase Mack Daddy once every 15 months in order to remain accredited). Anyway everybody loved it.

So the Coke people realized they must have a hit on their hands. And they introduced New Coke. And it sank like a stone. Actually it sank so fast, that for a brief period the phrase "sink like a stone" was revised to "sink like New Coke."

Why? Because the people at Coke didn't realize what Coke met. Coke was part of America, an integral part. And nobody was going to monkey with it, as far as the American people were concerned. There's a world of difference between lifting one of those little plastic cups to your lips and lifting a Coke can to your lips (and don't get me started on Coke in little green bottles).

So what does this have to do with Mickey Mouse? Everything. Yeah, Mickey is square. He's a little dull, particularly compared to Daffy Duck or Goofy. He embodies values and virtues that perhaps we don't see in these days. There's not an ironic bone in his body (and frankly, we certainly don't need another irony filled cartoon charectar). But, still, he's one of us.

And woe unto the Disney Exec who follows Ms. Holson's advice. I don't think, even now, that the American people could stand to see Mickey Mouse monkeyed with, and I don't think any attempt to bring Mickey "up to date" could succeed.