After only a few hours and many thousands of tweets, Facebook posts, blog posts and calls to action, The Walt Disney Co. said it will withdraw a trademark application related to Mexico’s Day of the Dead (Día de los muertos.)
The trademark request was related to an upcoming Disney-Pixar film inspired by the holiday. Overall, Disney reportedly filed 10 requests in the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office this month to coin the phrase Día de los muertos. But as the company told the blog Fronteras:
As we have previously announced, Disney-Pixar is developing an animated feature inspired by the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. Disney’s trademark filing was intended to protect any potential title for our film and related activities. It has since been determined that the title of the film will change and therefore we are withdrawing our trademark filing.
The Disney-Pixar trademark brouhaha was only the latest in a string of social media-based campaigns launched by Latino bloggers and activists to call on big corporations, politicians or media companies. Not all campaigns end favorably for the activists. But Latino outcry over Disney’s efforts quickly paid off.
As the bloggers over at Latino Rebels said it on their story Wednesday morning: Comunidad 1, Disney 0.