The Intersection of Sesame Place and Sea World: Accusations of Racism & Animal Abuse

This last week there has been considerable press of a park in Pennsylvania that many people didn't know about before it hit the news. Sesame Place brings Sesame Street to life in a theme park setting especially tailored for children. Or at least it should. The controversy this week centered around a walk-around character named Rosita. A family visiting the park and others have claimed the character showed negative attention to a pair of young black girls, who were cousins and guests of the park. All this coincides as I spent time this last week at Sea World where I was actually at Sesame Street Land. Yes...the same company that owns and operates Sesame Place, owns the Sea World parks. And those parks have a Sesame Street component of some kind. In Orlando it's called Sesame Street Land. We'll talk about some interesting parallels between this hot topic of inclusion and a certain orca that cannot be named inside their parks. But this isn't about muppets and whales. It's about values and integrity. And most of all, we draw important questions out that you should consider when thinking about your values and your integrity organizationally. So join us at the intersection of Sesame Place and Sea World. By the way, because this is a Disney at Work podcast, that means two things: First, we'll throw in a little discussion of how Disney is dealing with these same issues. Second, our Disney at Work podcasts differ from our Disney at Play podcasts because we like to offer ideas for your own organization and how you can apply these same business lessons to what you do.