Sometimes in the world of entertainment mistakes happen. And it should not be a surprise that one might find good intentions behind some of those mistakes. Such was the case involving a children’s program from Disney’s Television Animation division.
CAPCO reached out to Disney regarding the negative slant and inaccuracies geared towards aerosol products in its popular cartoon series “Phineas and Ferb.” While the aerosol industry applauds the effort of using art and entertainment to educate our youth about the importance of protecting the environment, there is reason for alarm when that education is based on bad information.
Recently, CAPCO received a letter back from Disney acknowledging the aerosol industry’s concerns and recognizing the potential reputational harm that the misinformation in the cartoon could cause.
At the center of CAPCO’s concern was the plot of the episode, in which the villain attempted to destroy the ozone using aerosol sprays (today’s aerosol products don’t contain ozone-depleting chemicals, in fact, they have not contained CFCs for more than 30 years). To correct the misinformation and avoid other misunderstandings, Disney indicated that it would modify the episode for future airings by incorporating new dialogue and changing the overall direction to reflect a more positive tone regarding aerosol products.
We are pleased to have received such a positive response from Disney as their programming reaches millions of viewers each year. Bringing this to the attention of Disney helps to ensure that similar misinformation regarding modern day aerosol products is not presented in future episodes of “Phineas and Ferb” and, hopefully, other cartoons on the network. Clearly, Disney values the presentation of accurate information in its programming.
And for that we applaud them.
