The Walt Disney Company and several politicians — including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — have been in the middle of multiple matters recently, largely stemming from Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (what critics refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill).
Disney spoke out against the bill, which has now become a law, prompting backlash from Governor DeSantis. Following this incident, lawmakers took to dissolving Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, addressing legislation to potentially revoke Disney’s no-fly zones, and introducing a bill to impact Mickey Mouse’s copyright protections. It’s one thing to deal with legislatures, laws, and courtrooms — but it’s another to deal with the court of public opinion. So just where does the public stand on Disney and others, like Florida Governor DeSantis? NBC sought to find out and now we’ve got the answers.
A survey was conducted by NBC via Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies on the public approval of various companies and political figures. Participants took the survey between May 5th and 10th, 2022, and the group was comprised of 1,000 adults (including around 750 respondents who were interviewed on their cell phone).
Participants were asked to “rate [their] feelings toward each [figure or entity presented as part of the survey] as very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative.” Individuals that the survey asked about included President Joe Biden, the Republican Party as a whole, and others.
The study also asked respondents for their feelings about RonDesantis and Disney. Just how did people respond?Well, the results indicated that 15% of respondents felt very positive toward Disney. 18% felt somewhat positive, 30% felt neutral, 15% felt somewhat negative, 15% felt very negative, and 7% weren’t sure or didn’t know the name.
When it comes to Governor RonDesantis, DeSantis actually beat Disney in the “very positive” category, with 20% of respondents saying they felt “very positive” about DeSantis.
DeSantis also, however, got a greater percentage of respondents in the “very negative” category. 20% of respondents said they felt “very negative” about DeSantis, compared to Disney’s 15%.
For DeSantis, 8% felt somewhat positive, 15% of respondents felt neutral, 6% felt somewhat negative, and 31% weren’t sure or didn’t recognize the name.
There were 31% of participants who didn’t know DeSantis or have an opinion, while only 7% didn’t know or have an opinion on Disney. This could largely be due to Disney’s status as a household name, while those outside of Florida or not interested in politics may not have an opinion or recognize DeSantis as much.
Ultimately, Disney had a total of 15% in the very positive category and 18% saying somewhat positive — amounting to 33%. DeSantis had 20% response for very positive, but only 8% for somewhat positive, amounting to a total of 28% with both categories combined.
At the end of the day, Disney ended up with a higher net favorability.
We’ll keep an eye on this story as it continues to develop, so stay tuned to AllEars for the latest.
President Biden Weighs in on the Disney and DeSantis Conflict
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DeSsntis=Best Governor Ever
DeSantis makes me glad I don’t live in FL. He is truly a disposable politician and human. The only reason he does anything is to fire up his base and not cause he cares about the people he is supposed to be governing.
Interesting poll- conducted by NBC….we know their opinion of DeSantis!!
I used to LOVE going to Disney World & Disneyland, but now with all the changes & Disney executives making my escape polictical, I am all for Gov. DeSantis.
I absolutely will not go back to the state of Florida while that man is in office. I will not contribute my tourism dollars to their economy. I bet a lot of people feel the same.
walt disney, his imagination, his creativity, his vision, his dreams!! the copyright of mickey mouse belongs to walt disney and no one else! walt disney world needs a no-fly zone over its parks to protect the millions of visitors and the cast members who work there. where were these elected officials when walt disney created mickey mouse, and where were these elected officials when walt disney and his brother roy came and bought the land for walt disney world?? me personally, i see the governor’s action towards walt disney world as an act of get even. i have so many wonderful memories of walt disney world!!! and i hope to make it back for the 50th anniversary celebration. just think, if it had not been for walt and roy building walt disney world, would there be a universal theme park or sea world and all the other business that surround that area there around orlando.
My opinion of Disney has plummeted in the last few years, but I firmly believe NO elected official should be so vindictive and childish as DeSantis has been over Chapek’s belated stand on the Don’t Say Gay bill. DeSantis’ actions show just how little he cares about the opinions of the electorate and just how much he intends to get his way. I hope Fla. voters remind DeSantis that he is governor and not King of Florida.
Disney forgot that it is supposed to serve the entire country and that includes people of all political beliefs. This will end up costing it dearly.
Totally agree. I wish they would remain completely neutral on politics. That’s not the stuff vacations or dreams are made of!
As we have seen over the last 10 years, political polls are widely inaccurate. The only opinion polls that matter for DeSantis are polls of Florida voters. At the same time this poll was being done, DeSantis’s favorability % has increased with likely Florida voters. RCP has him at +9 over his likely Democrat challenger in November. For an RCP to be in a Republican’s favor by +9% at this point and in a “swing state” is huge.
YOU NAILED IT! I agree 100%. I am a Floridian, and I only know one person that isn’t going to vote for him – and that includes quite a few democrats. Let the media slam him all they want, we love our governor in the land of freedom. The fact that everyone here can even HAVE this survey is thanks to Desantis.
I was not asked for an opinion
Who were the residents that responded
As A Florida Resident for 34 years I am not a fan of The governor and my opinion gets lower every time he does something stupid
Like No hum control no permits and background checks
We are living in the wild west