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Disney
plans phone service
Lauren Webber
Newsday
July 7, 2005
Mickey Mouse is entering the wireless
age.
Mickey's creator, the Walt Disney Co.,
said yesterday it is teaming up with
Sprint to offer wireless phone service
with Disney-branded content. The new
program, called Disney Mobile, will be
offered next year and will target
families and the growing number of kids
with cellphones.
Deals like this one are increasingly
common as entertainment companies
aggressively test out new ways to market
their brands and cellphone service
providers search for new users.
Children have become a favorite new
market for mobile services now that most
adults - over 80 percent, by some counts
- already own cellphones.
According to NOP World Technology, a
consumer research firm based in
Manhattan, 40 percent of kids aged 12 to
14 owned cell phones at the end of last
year, up from just 13 percent in 2002.
Already on the market are Hello Kitty
phones, offered jointly by Nokia and the
character's creator, Sanrio. Mattel
sells a Barbie-branded phone as part of
its My Scene line targeting 8- to
14-year-old girls. Verizon Wireless has
added Sesame Street and Nickelodeon
clips to its V Cast wireless broadband
service, presumably so harried moms and
dads can entertain junior for a few
minutes.
Kim Kerscher, a Disney spokeswoman, said
the phones will offer Disney-branded
"ring tones, graphics and information,"
but she gave few other details about the
service.
Susan Linn, a child advocate and
psychologist at Judge Baker Children's
Center in Boston, criticized the deal,
saying it's just one more platform for
sending advertisements to kids in an
already over-commercialized society.
Kerscher responded that the phones will
be "tools for communication," not
marketing. |
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