Can Disney Turn A Mistake Into a Miracle? What To Do When A Small Gal Has a Gripe Against A Big Guy…

Disney screwed the pooch this time…. But, if they lived up to their reputation, they might just turn a low level mistake into a True Princess Miracle.

As you can see in the image above, the first painting was painted by Katie Woodger, herein referred to as small gal, was clearly knocked off by Disney, herein referred to as Big Guy. This painting by Katie is actually quite popular and claims the reputation of being tattooed on 9 different people and over 2030 notes on Tumblr.

Katie feels violated, outraged, and helpless as she cries for help on her blog. After all, how can a simple artist go up against one of the largest companies in the world? While my guess is that this was a low level lazy employee who knocked it off, obviously Disney needs to take responsibility and is certainly liable.  Here is a screenshot of the Disney product that knocked off the design.

I was a deprived child, never got to visit any Disney lands, or worlds, or whatnot. I feel especially disappointed when I read about Dan Kennedy talk about Mike Vance, the marketing brains behind Disney’s customer experience, and how well choreographed the experience at all Disney properties are. Disney is not just the gold standard for delivering a memorable experience you can’t stop talking about, they even teach their lessons via DisneyInstitute, which is a business and professional development training program, meant to help other companies mimic the Disney proven model.

Here is the real question. Everything I know about Disney dictates that they should reach out to Katie, offer a public apology, and give her a nice big paycheck for royalties, pain and suffering. When ever I think about stealing music, and all the SOPA, PIPA stuff, it upsets me, but now I see a human face behind the art, and I wonder if its about more than just the money. Katie feels hurt, violated, and helpless, these are the opposite emotions that Disney tries to manufacture at their parks, and I truly hope they make things right by living up to the Brand We Believe In, and Turning a Small Gals Nightmare into a Spectacular Miracle. A Miracle We Can All Believe In!

Thanks to the Hacker News community for bringing this story to light, and Let’s hope the comments that indicate Disney is very serious about their own IP infringement that they fix this quickly.

Good Luck Katie.