While the intent appears to be good, in that Disney is backing away from junk foods and attempting to steer children towards healthier options, there's still something icky about the Mouse's insistence on branding every single bloody thing children come across. As Susan Linn of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood tells the Washington Post :"If we think about children's well-being, the best thing we could do is to stop marketing any food to them and let parents make choices about what their children eat without being undermined by advertising."

The art of using likable, popular characters to draw children to certain foods is clearly nothing new: when I was a kid, I bugged my parents until they bought me cereals with Toucan Sam and Tony the Tiger on the box. When my parents were kids, they followed the advice of The Cheerios Kid. And when my grandparents were kids, they looked to the Campbell's Kids. There will always be tie-ins between food and inoffensive characters, mostly because it's good business: since starting the line last year, the Disney Garden line has seen a 70% increase in sales.

While I am not a fan of Disney, by any means, I suppose at the very least we can be glad that they are steering kids towards healthier options. But if, in 30 years, the only foods we have to eat have pictures of the Jonas Brothers on them, I'm moving to Saturn. And I'm taking all the Efronocados with me.

A Hannah Montana Banana? [Washington Post]
Disney Rethinks The Branding Of Food [PSFK]
Disney Eggs: They're Eggs. By Disney

As you see, it's eggs. With Disney characters stamped on the shells. Possibly selling at a markup. Is this some kind of tie-in to a movie, or further proof of the evils of agribusiness and the coming apocalypse? And while marketers obviously want to trick kids into believing that the plain old eggs are going to come out magically Mickey-shaped, we want to know: 1. Do the eggs come with the mold? 2. How much does said mold cost? 3. Does egg actually seep out from under edges of said mold, rendering shape unrecognizable, as has been the case in all our experiments with whimsical egg-shapery? The only way I can see this strangely low-fi "new product" swaying any egg-hater is if you give them something shell-on, ie hard-boiled or soft-cooked. Even then, any kid is quickly going to get wise to the fact that it's just a plain old egg, but a prancing Donald Duck might buy you a reluctant bite or two.