Disney Lets Loose a Language Genie

Walt Disney Co. is blitzing the Latino community with Spanish-language ads for “Aladdin,” its animated movie this holiday season.

For several weeks now, Disney has promoted the film in Spanish-language newspapers and on radio stations. Disney even put together a half-hour Spanish-language television special on how the movie was made, airing on the Telemundo network.

Disney Vice President Alan Dinwiddie said the Spanish-language promotion, Disney’s largest ever, gives Latinos a “special invitation” to see the movie, which opened wide on Wednesday. There’s just one hitch: “Aladdin” is in English.

Dinwiddie sees no problem with Disney’s promotion, intended to draw thousands of Spanish-speaking children to the movies during the important holiday season. Many Latino children are bilingual and will understand “Aladdin,” he said. Though some Spanish-speaking parents won’t understand the words, the action of the G-rated film is easy to follow, Dinwiddie said.

Dinwiddie added that Disney’s research shows that many Spanish-speaking people attend English-language films, anyway.

However, a Latino community activist objected to Disney’s approach, saying the company isn’t serious about Spanish-speaking consumers. “Parents are paying top dollar to attend a movie, and are being left out,” said Edith Adame, a lawyer with San Francisco-based Latino Issues Forum. “Disney is going to draw a large audience who will not understand the movie.”

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Hey big spender: In an effort to boost all-important holiday sales, Mervyn’s department stores is rewarding big spenders with special vacation packages. People who drop $300 at Mervyn’s during the Christmas shopping rush are eligible for certificates for two free round-trip tickets to a Mexican resort or to Honolulu. To get the certificates, customers pay a $12 processing fee.

Though it looks like a bargain, this is a promotion only a big spender can love. People who take the “free” trips must stay at specified hotels for at least seven nights, and pay for their entire stay. With rooms priced between $79 and $99 a night for each person, a couple could wind up spending $1,386 for their room alone. Meals, rental cars and other amenities will drive that vacation tab even higher.

A Mervyn’s spokesman said that while it may be possible for people to find cheaper vacation packages, the promotion, the first of its kind for the chain, “is a good deal.”

Especially for Mervyn’s. What makes this promotion really stand out is that it costs Mervyn’s very little. Paul Brooks, a Culver City retail promotion specialist, put the travel package together for the Hayward, Calif.-based department store chain. He explained that the hotels are paying for the air fare in order to get people to stay in otherwise empty rooms.

Brooks says that he estimates that at least 100,000 Mervyn’s shoppers will qualify for the trips and that at least one-quarter of those people will go. Most will bring a friend or spouse along. Better bring the checkbook too.

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Santa Claus is exempt: The Federal Trade Commission has voted to apply federal rules covering mail-order purchases to purchases made by telephone.

The revised rules require merchants to ship a “properly completed” mail or telephone order within 30 days in most cases. If the order isn’t shipped within 30 days, the merchant must give the customer the option of canceling the order for a full refund.

Refunds for payments made by cash, check or money order must be made within seven days, the new regulations say. Credit card refunds must be made within one billing cycle, usually 25 to 30 days.

The 30-day rule doesn’t apply if a merchant gives a specific delivery time when an order is made. (For example, some catalogue companies offer two-day delivery.) In those cases, the merchant must meet the agreed-upon delivery deadline.

Unfortunately for phone-order shoppers, the rules don’t take effect until early next year, after the Christmas shopping season that accounts for one-quarter to one-third of catalogue sales.

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Financial advisers: Is your financial planner registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission? Very likely not, according to the International Assn. for Financial Planning.

In a survey earlier this year, the association found that 47% of its members were not registered with the SEC. The federal agency requires financial advisers to register if they sell or recommend securities. But many investment advisers believe that they only need to register if they sell securities.

A spokeswoman for the association says it recommends that its members register because financial planning often goes beyond preparing weekly budgets and involves giving investment advice.

Of course, an SEC registration isn’t proof that an adviser is competent or honest. The SEC can provide you with information on the background of an adviser who is registered, including any past securities law violations.

To find out if a financial planner is registered, ask to see the planner’s registration certificate, or check with the SEC. The International Assn. for Financial Planning, which is based in Atlanta, has records on its 8,000 U.S. members.