Cult of the Mouse

According to this erratic manifesto, the Walt Disney Company, and especially its CEO Michael Eisner, symbolize everything that's wrong with American business. Surrounded by yes-men, indifferent to quality and focused solely on cost-cutting and quarterly earnings, Eisner, the author claims, presides over a totalitarian Disney "cult" that stifles creative types and has debased Mickey's image in the name of fear and greed. Ex-Disney ad exec Caroselli awkwardly marries this critique to a treatise on "innovation," something that few might expect from the world's leading producer of family entertainment. Caroselli's rambling "free-associative approach" extols such bona-fide innovators as the Wright Brothers and Bill Gates, throws out some vague tips like "Embrace New Technology" and "Ask Why? Why? Why?" and warns readers about various types of corporate scumbags who will try to quash or steal their great ideas. But he returns compulsively to the diatribe against Eisner, whom he feels did not grant him enough one-on-one meetings. What Caroselli sees as the decline of Disney from the days when Walt himself ran it is, he contends, emblematic of the triumph of marketing hype over solid "real-deal ideas" and, indeed, reality itself whose last refuge, according to Caroselli, is Disneyland, which he feels was an oasis of authenticity before Eisner tarnished it with his "somewhat phony" add-on California Adventure theme parklet. Hopelessly confused about the distinction between fantasy and reality while bemoaning its loss, Caroselli's axe-grinding abounds in unintended ironies.