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Remember Our365? I don’t expect you do. Almost a year ago I posted about how Disney had teamed up with the organization that helps companies market to expectant parents. Our365 can actually get its partner companies’ representatives into maternity wards to try to sell their wares.
For all I know either the company or its partnership is now defunct. But Disney hasn’t stopped sniffing around its coveted new market. On Monday January 17 the House of Mouse launched disneybaby.com.
Disney Baby works just like other sites in the Disney Go family, although strangely its URL doesn’t contain the word “go” anywhere. But just like most other official Disney sites it combines social networking, parental advice, and of course, shopping.
The site is organized a couple of different ways, but the main way is by categories relating to important moments in the lives of expectant or new parents and their children. The sections are:
-Getting ready (i.e., preparing for a baby’s arrival)
-In the nursery
-Dressing baby
-On-the-go
-Mealtime
-Playtime
-Bath time
-Baby’s Firsts
Each section includes opportunities for parents to share stories about their children during these activities, and to post pictures of the experiences. Disney Baby also has tips and suggestions for what to do with your baby during each of these times. Of course it also includes merchandise one can buy relating to these events, everything from clothes and bibs to toys, small plastic dishware, and even health and grooming kits (sets with branded nail clippers, hair brushes, thermometers, and more).
Another interesting thing each section has is a checklist: a list of items one might need when preparing to give one’s baby a bath, for example, or take a baby on a trip outside. Sometimes there are even pieces of advice to go along with the checklist; for example, under the “grooming” section on the bath time checklist, there’s the item Sanitized Cotton Balls. Its explanation reads, “Use these to clean around Baby’s eyes. To do this, go from the inside to the outside of the eye with the cotton ball (using a separate cotton ball for each eye).”
Disney Baby is a sweet little website, but it’s also entirely predictable. Disney’s basically trying to insinuate itself into every step of a person’s life; parents use their networking sites to get tips, game ideas, and to communicate with one another. Kids are surrounded by the merchandise and films growing up, so when they become adults and parents themselves they gravitate toward these sorts of Disney sites.
They’re harmless, really, unless you really don’t want Disney in your home. I can’t say Disney is the first, or really even anywhere on the list, of companies that I’d think of to go to when I need advice for what to do about a new baby.
But if you’re a new or expecting parent who is also a huge Disney fan, then this site is perfect for you, and like I said, harmless, unless you’re particularly susceptible to having to buy merchandise once you’ve seen it. It’s merely one of many little links that parents can click, and frankly I find that the baby pictures and parent stories stand out far more.
What I’m most surprised about, honestly, is that Disney Baby didn’t exist before last week. I’m suspicious that it didn’t, but I didn’t know about it until after its launch so I have no way of knowing. But given how many stories and photos already uploaded by users, it’s sure making up for lost time.
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*(This image by Sam Pullara is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
