world of tomorrow today, brand awareness, disney

Disney's Future, Now Even More Corporate

Want to know what it'd be like living in the future? Forty-one years after they last gave you the chance, Disney is opening a new version of its "House of The Future" in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. Disneyland's original version of the house opened in 1957, as part of Walt Disney's desire to make his entertainment resort a showcase for the science of tomorrow. This new version, created in partnership with corporations like Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, has much more modest goals: It's there to make you want to buy things.

Microsoft's Matt Rosoff explained just what they're getting out of the new future house:

I don't think Microsoft wants to get directly into retail, but it looks like these types of demonstrations are a way for it to get its brand in front of the public... It's an audience that's there to be entertained and specifically coming to see these kinds of things.

Disney's Dave Miller agrees:

It's much different than a spiel that you would get at a trade show... We won't get into the bits and the bytes. It will be about the digital lifestyle and how that lifestyle can help you.

Of course, that lifestyle will only be able to help you in the future if you've purchased the products with the right labels. [Associated Press]

12:40 PM on Fri Feb 15 2008
By Graeme McMillan
1,558 views
11 comments

Comments

Jeff-Minor at 01:13 PM on 02/15/08
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Why is the future so ugly for so many designers? Perhaps if this house was made from something like wood, taken from slaughtered 2,000 year old sequoia redwooods, then it might be acceptable. The future, tied to the past.
92BuickLeSabre at 01:27 PM on 02/15/08
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Connectedness Index: 558

To steal from myself:

"Welcome to the...House of Tomorrow!!!!

And by that I literally mean tomorrow. Most of this stuff will be on sale tomorrow, so be sure to check out our corporate partners at www.hp.com, www.ms...."
ManchuCandidate at 02:54 PM on 02/15/08
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Connectedness Index: 519

Where's the jetpack parking?
moncapitaine at 04:24 PM on 02/15/08
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@ManchuCandidate:
jet packs are so 1957. Now it's all about genetically modified feet and hands that expel high pressure hot gas to propel persons though the air. Don't light a cigarette when they take off though.
MonsantoWestinghouse at 06:00 PM on 02/15/08
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I used to live there.
It's now a topless bar in Tampa called the "2001 Club"
blurey at 08:00 PM on 02/15/08
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the future is here but only for those that can afford it.-blurey
adso at 08:05 AM on 02/16/08
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More like the house of yesterday: "The 5,000-square-foot home, scheduled to open in May, will look like a suburban tract home outside."
People will shell out good money for a sports car that looks like it could fly out of a Cylon base star, yet park it in a house the Mike Brady would think look dated.
Klebert L. Hall at 10:24 AM on 02/16/08
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I already know what it's like to live in The Future!... It's way better than the past of course, but it has less rayguns and 3-day workweeks than I was hoping for.
-Kle.
Slatz_Grobnik at 07:59 PM on 02/16/08
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A home where advertising is everywhere. Yep, nailed the future right properly.
X: The Eliminator at 09:39 PM on 02/16/08
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hp and microsoft? seriously??

if want to boil the kettle, the last thing i want is a blue screen of death.
Habu at 03:41 PM on 02/17/08
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Ah yes, Disney, the corporate monolith bent on brainwashing our children (and us) in the ways of materialism. It's all about STUFF, isn't it Disney?

Thanks Disney, for makin' our world such a better place!

I can remember when Disney meant Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons. That time is long since past......