Doing well by doing good

You have to hand it to the folks at Disney. They are smart.

Today, they're announcing a new initiative along with the First Lady that among other things, limits junk food advertising on their networks that target children and reduces the amount of sodium in meals in their theme parks by 25%.

You'd think that cutting off your content platform to some products from advertisers like Frito Lay, General Mills, Coke and others would be bad for business.

But you'd be wrong.

Along with the shift in ad policy, Disney is introducing an endorsement program where a branded food item that meets Disney's standards (not the FDAs) will receive a "Mickey Check" – a sticker on the package signifying its goodness.

I'm guessing the check isn't going on every product in the store that meets their standards. In fact, I'm pretty sure it will only be available to those companies pay Disney a lot of money for ad deals or other marketing programs. 

I'm also certain a there will be a royalty involved. So for every carton of juice sold that sports a Mickey Check, Disney will make a few pennies. Given the amount of "healthy" processed food sold across the U.S., those pennies will add up quickly, covering the cost of the few advertisers who are cut out by this program.

Proving once again, that doing good can be very, very good business.