Disney pulls a fast one

My son wanted to watch Tarzan II (disclaimer: Amazon associate). I was very busy doing something else, but he kept on and on and on until I finally dropped everything and went to the den to put it on for him. I impatiently popped the DVD into the player and grabbed the remote.

This DVD is equipped with Disney FastPlay…

I sighed in relief. Instead of wading through all of the previews and ads to get to the place where you have to press ‘Play’ to start the movie, I could just leave. The movie would start itself. I blessed Disney and their thoughtfulness.

Then as I went back to what I was doing before, a different thought occurred to me.

How shrewd. Normally, as each preview/ad came up, I would have pressed the ‘Skip’ button to get to the next one until I finally got to the menu where I could press ‘Play’. By making their DVD more convenient — hands free, if you will — Disney insured that my son would see all of the previews and all of the ads. Kids don’t mind watching these ads, in fact it gives them ideas for future parent-pestering. It’s the parents who get impatient.

Lesson: how do you get people to watch your ads? By making it easier than skipping them.