Mr. Iger said that ‘you can’t please everybody all the time,’ and the company has to cater to a broad audience.
Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger pushed back against criticisms that the company pushed woke messages through its TV shows and movies, insisting the brand was an “entertainment-first company.”
“I’ve been preaching this for a long time at the company before I left and since I came back that our No. 1 goal is to entertain. I think, like, the term woke is thrown around rather liberally, no pun intended in that regard. I think a lot of people don’t even understand really what it means,” Mr. Iger said in an April 4 interview with CNBC. “The bottom line is that infusing messaging as a sort of No. 1 priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining.”
“Where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world, whether it’s fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great,” he said. But “generally speaking, we need to be an entertainment-first company. And I’ve worked really hard to do that.”
Mr. Iger said he has been engaging with executives and the creative community while trying to return Disney back “to our roots.”
He is also attempting to ensure that “everybody’s aligned on what our priorities are,” understanding that the company is trying to reach “a very, very diverse audience.”
“And on one hand, in order to do that, the stories you tell have to really reflect the audience that you’re trying to reach. But that audience, because they are so diverse, really first and foremost, they want to be entertained,” he said.
“And sometimes they can be turned off by certain things. And we just have to be more sensitive to the interests of a broad audience. It’s not easy. You can’t please everybody all the time.”
In the interview, Mr. Iger was asked about billionaire Elon Musk targeting him and his “anti-woke campaign.”
Mr. Iger replied that he ignores it. “People have been coming after me and the company for years and it’s just, I don’t get distracted by those things.”
