The Secret Walt Disney Commercials
A very interesting read on the commercials made by the Disney company in the 50’s can be found at Animated World Magazine. Including some artwork and examples of the work Disney Studios did back then.
The ‘50s were also a time of renaissance at the Disney Studio that was still recovering from the financial hardships of World War II. While Cinderella had been a success, Walt was desperately in need of money to help maintain the studio and to finance his latest project, the world’s first theme park to be called Disneyland. (Animated World Magazine)
But making these commercials where not the thing Disney Studios wanted to do…
Advertising work clearly helped keep the studio intact. But while the studio made money with this type of product (and I mean big money) it was not a field either Walt or Roy were happy to be in. Their reasoning was sound. We didn’t own the characters we produced for other companies; there was absolutely no residual value. Worse, we were at the whim of the client; at each stage of production we had to twiddle our thumbs and await approval before we could venture on to the next step.” (Animated World Magazine)