My wife and I just recently watched the first two episodes of the new TV show “Once Upon a Time.” While I’m still not entirely hooked on the show, I did notice something interesting while watching it. It is a perfect example of media conglomeration and marketing. For example: the show is aired on ABC; the network that is, in turn, owned by the Walt Disney Company. Thus, one might find it very fitting that they would air a show about fairy tales.

However, upon closer inspection I realized something. All of the fairy tale characters that appear on the show are practically owned by Disney. Snow White, Prince Charming, Jiminy Cricket, and the list goes on and on. Now, while not all of the characters appear in Disney movies (Rumpelstiltskin for example), I do think it’s rather convenient that most of the characters that appear in this show bring one’s mind back to their childhood Disney movies. I would even go so far as to guess that their are plenty of connections to be found if one were to look at who is advertising during this show’s time slot.

Now, I’m not trying to be a conspiracy theorist or say that the whole premise of this television show is to be a big marketing stunt. But, I do think that this is a another example of the fact that it is important to understand how these relationships of media and culture work.

Sidenote: The website I got this picture from is called mouseinfo.com. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.