When we last left Michael Eisner he was giving his personal Mickey Mouse tie to Robert Iger and noting that all he had left was his Mickey Mouse underwear.
It must be rough being a former entertainment mogul and part-time talk show host. Which is probably why Eisner continues to look for just the right post-Disney venture in hopes that he will one day return to his former glory. Lately he’s pinning his hopes on a company called Team Baby Entertainment. With a name like that it has to be good.
According to the LA Times, Team Baby is a start-up company that makes college-sports booster videos aimed at children ages 6 months to 5 years. Think teletubbies with football helmets.
Believe me when I say that it’s not my long running aversion to all college sports that causes me to say that this is wrong on so many levels.
Team Baby founder Greg Scheinman reportedly started the business after realizing that the market for college sports videos targeted at pre-schoolers was wide open. Scheinman created a couple of videos to introduce his 1-year-old son Auden to the University of Texas and Michigan football teams.
One year later, Scheinman said, Auden could recognize the Michigan Wolverines and could do the Texas “Hook ’em Horns” sign.
I don’t plan on having kids, but if I did I certainly hope it wouldn’t take my child a full year to recognize a wolverine.
Eisner told the Times:
“Team Baby’s products are unique in the marketplace for preschool videos in that they introduce a child to its parents’ favorite athletic teams while also promoting the idea of sports and teamwork.”
Right, because how else are kids supposed to find out about their parents favorite athletic teams?
[…] A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Michael Eisner’s outlandish new investment, Team Baby, a video production company that produces and manufactures college sports videos for infants and toddlers ages 6 months to 5 years. The videos are designed to indoctrinate extremely young children into the cult of college sports. While the idea sounded insane at the time, it’s actually gotten worse. Team Baby has just signed deals with the NBA, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR. […]