Have you recently run across a Facebook page that claims that they are giving away a free coloring book, but upon further investigation of their offer reveals that the coloring book is actually a corruption of what is known as a “crayon”. How many times have you been to the computer, picked up a coloring book, and had to crayon in three different shades of reds, greens, and yellow? I know, just about every crayon used comes in one of those shades. However, the Facebook page was offering the coloring book as a freebie, and upon further investigation found that there were two other books that were being given away along with it, one was a Harry Potter book and the second was a coloring book that promised “hot tips for kids”.
Upon further examination of these two coloring books found on the website, they were both page after page of bright colors, and did not contain any kind of crayon art. Upon further checking of the website, we were able to find a blog maintained by the company “Grooogle Coloring”, where in they claimed that all of the coloring books were created by their in-house artist, except for one, which was an official release from Disney. The blog maintained was filled with compliments to the company for giving out free products, and had several colorful images of happy and smiling animals along with the text “We give you happiness and joy”. We were also able to find several testimonials on the company’s Facebook page from satisfied customers. Upon looking through the testimonials, it was apparent that most people were not having any kind of problems with either the books or the company itself.
From the information found on the Facebook page, it was obvious that the coloring book corruptions were coming from a blog maintains by the parent company for Disney, and not directly from Disney themselves. It seems as though this is a tactic to get more customers to purchase the books from Disney themselves, and in turn create more profit for Disney. However, it does seem as if the happy and smiling animals found throughout the coloring books are meant to be true representations of Disney, and therefore, there is no harm or wrong doing. Some of the testimonials even said that they plan on using the products for a long time, and would recommend them to other children. In the end, coloring books for children with coloring pictures of happy and smiling animals might not have much to do with profit for Disney, but it could simply be the marketing strategy that Disney uses to get children to purchase their merchandise.