Holy guacamole!

The Washington Post has an interesting article in its Sunday edition about how Disney has been backing away from partnering with junk foods like McDonalds and is instead branding healthier foods like eggs and fruit with familiar faces.

One such product is the High School Musical avocado. When Disney stamps a product with a popular character, such as tween sensation Zac Efron, it “can’t help but benefit from the nag factor,” says Lance Gatewood, the vice president of Disney Consumer Products’ Food, Health & Beauty, North American division. And, when kids are begging their parents for something nutritious, like an avocado, he explains, it’s hard to say no. Parents are happy, growers are happy, grocers are happy, kids are happy and healthy, and, oh yeah, Disney is pleased, too. It turns out that seasonal fruits can be the perfect promotional platform for a film. Last summer’s avocado season coincided conveniently with the fall release of High School Musical 3. Besides the promotional boost, Disney earns back royalties on units sold. And, because of the Disney appeal, more units tend to sell. Sometimes it’s a lot more: Bagged-apple sales went up 47 percent during a High School Musical promotion at Winn-Dixie.

That’s all well and good, Disney, but promise me you’ll keep Zac Efron’s face off bananas in the foreseeable future. At least until his fan base is old enough that we know they won’t be using it as a “learning tool.”

(And yeah, bitches, I made that graphic myself. Don’t be jealous that my mad skillz extend to the visual arts.)

Okay that was cheesy. But it stays.

So anyway…

Disney begins the delicate process of inching away from noted Jew-hater Mel Gibson, with ABC cancelling his upcoming miniseries about the Holocaust. I hope that was a no-brainer, ABC.

Next on Disney’s formidable chopping block may be Gibson’s latest passion project, Apocalypto, the Mayan-language tour-de-force that is, perhaps, a thinly veiled vehicle for Gibson’s long-held hatred of Spaniards (who, you gotta admit, have been responsible for their damn fair share of “all the wars in the world”). It’s hard to be sure, though, because, you know, the movie’s in fucking Mayan.

The trailers boast a release date of Summer 2006, but the latest data from Touchstone has the film slated for early December. Anyone know when the shift occurred?

Update: Never mind, Disney says they are going to move forward with the Mayan-language release of Apocalypto in December. The English-language release will follow never. And 73% of the country is so totally psyched for it!