Disney "Brainwashes" Guests Every Time They Enter a Park

Comments for Disney “Brainwashes” Guests Every Time They Enter a Park

main street confectionery disney world

Credit: Disney

30 Comments

  1. EricJ

    That’s also why they put the popcorn cart right in front of the inside station door as you walk in:
    The idea is that the park is one big “show”, the names on the Main St. windows are the “opening credits”, and you’re expected to get your popcorn on the way in.

  2. Chrissy

    That is awesome

  3. Kaz

    I feel like this has been known for ages by most Disney fans…

  4. Al

    Is it brainwashing or effective sales and marketing

    1. Manny

      @al The father of modern marketing and public relations Edward Bernays was a nephew of Freud and created campaigns akin to propaganda. Torches of freedom a cigarette campaign targeting women. United Fruit and Guatemala is just another example of nefarious and questionable techniques in influencing the masses.

    2. That’s what effective sales and marketing is…brain washing

    3. Aaron

      Yeah so…. so does every fudge store in the world….. your point? Oh wait they’re really is no point is there. Or are you trying to say it’s all a big conspiracy? This kind of news article is pointless and disgusting, grow up.

  5. Rich

    If this is “brainwashing” it must be on people with small brains. The smells used in Soarin in Epcot enhance the ride but not much else.

  6. Tlaw

    Waiting for the Chepak update, when guests smell questionable mind altering scents to encourage them to part with their hard earned cash for silly things such as Genie +. Let’s call that the Chepak bonus scent, now available at all Disney locations.

    1. Barb

      Chapek has a ‘scent’ alright but his is greed! The man is already worth $50mil and that’s why the prices keep going up, up, up! He has to make certain the Disney company will be able to pay his ten figure salary! I used to be able to take my kids to WDW every year. No way I could do that now!

    2. Mr. Mediocre

      I’d rather smell this than the foul body odour of most of the unwashed, obese and generally disgusting “guests” that frequent the park. If it helps mask the ungodly nasty odour of the unwashed masses, I see nothing wrong with this.

  7. CJA

    Every establishment that offers food for sale has used this tactic of smell – the popcorn at the movie theatre, coffee at the diner, bread or cookies at the bakery. These odors at Disneyland do indeed enhance the experience, and we enjoy it every time!

  8. Manny

    Disney and Casinos learned a lot from each other.

    1. Andre

      Thats what I came here to say..lol. Foxwoods does something similar, though a bit different. If you are not anywhere near the smoking area, you can tell they pump in extra oxygen and some very pleasant smells. Makes you energized and want to be there, you know, spending money. It works, I love being there..lol.

  9. Smelly Nelly

    Jokes on them because after I eat one of their churros, I walk around leaving my own scent around the park

  10. Omair

    “……Parks around the world, the compnay certainly understands that…..”

    “compnay,” are we not checking spellings anymore?

    1. Nicole

      Most people don’t bother with a casual forum like this. Not as big a deal as when you are writing for work.

  11. M

    It’s been made obvious

  12. Mr. Mediocre

    I’d rather smell this than the foul body odour of most of the unwashed, obese and generally disgusting “guests” that frequent the park. If it helps mask the ungodly nasty odour of the unwashed masses, I see nothing wrong with this

  13. Trvor

    If you bathed regularly no one have to smell your body odor. And they wouldn’t have to mask your ungodly nasty stench.

  14. Matthew Brewster

    In the WDW resorts, smell plays a part as you enter the lobby. I haven’t been to the resort since 2009, yet I csn still recall that wonderful smell of entering the Poly, Con or Grand! I have since then learned that what I was smelling a chemical called bromide, which is used to filter impurities from water.

  15. Debi Davis

    Of course they do everyone knows that the scent and the sensitizer is part of the whole ambience. oh that makes it wonderful The same as Burger King sends out the charcoal smell of beef and stater brothers fried chicken you can smell from the parking lot. Everybody does it it’s not brainwashing it’s just like everybody else does. It figures it’s always someone who’s got to pick on Disney for something because you just don’t want to like something that brings joy and happiness to families

  16. Terry

    Bob paycheck smells your money and will do anything to make you part with it

  17. Josh

    I can smell the popcorn as I read this.

  18. C

    The smell of main Street. My favorite part of Disneyland since I was a kid

  19. Roger Dodger

    It’s just chemicals!

    Fortunately, Disney (probably) doesn’t overdo it, and does not use nauseating smells of cloying chemi-vanilla, chemi-fruits and many others like casinos, malls, and even stores like Bath and B0dy Works, high end purse stores in the mall, etc.

    Sure, we want to go back to Disney but I couldn’t even breathe in the local Arizona casino that added fragrance aka chemicals to the air. We used to carpool from there and now I won’t even go in to use the bathroom.

    People are naive if they’re covering their face to protect themselves from a virus but happy to put all of these chemicals in their lungs on a regular basis. Candles, plug-ins, stores at the mall. At Disney, personally I find it manageable, and I undoubtedly have mild chemical sensitivity. Some people have to travel with oxygen, just in case, because chemicals have consequences.

  20. StLH2O

    Guess it’s wasted on me.. My sense of smell only works on very close objects- like a meal, or extreme like a fire. I’m a visual and tactile person, and I love going into the shops looking for something to add to my collection. And the fireworks – aaahhhh!

  21. Robin T

    Ok. So maybe use of the word “brainwashing” was a little heavy-handed, and maybe it is commonly known that scent is frequently used in many industries. I still appreciate that this article reminds me of one of the many reasons I love Disneyland, in spite of the growing crowds which, by the way, speaks to how well Disney uses all the senses to bring people back again and again. Thanks for the reminder!

  22. Yeti

    You can actually buy a lot of these smells from the same company that makes a lot of them for Disney, Scent Air. I have one of their consumer grade “smellitizers,” the Scent Air Whisper, and I keep it stocked with the Green Clover and Aloe scent that’s used in the Contemporary Resort. Blows Yankee Candle or Glade out of the water.

  23. Mama T

    Just took a trip to Disney World and this actually was an issue for me. I’m currently in that post covid phase that has affected some and makes everything smell and taste wrong. All the smells made me quite nauseated and TOTALLY Penetrated the face mask I wore, so there was no escaping it! 🤢
    It all just smelled sickly sweet and chemically to me, on a couple attractions I had to cover my nose, and do all I could to breathe through my mouth.

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