Disney’s fight with Florida may have just put them at the top of the polarizing brands list. According to this year’s Axios Harris Poll ranking the top 100 company’s reputation score, Disney dropped ” a dozen spots, to 77th. While they made gains with Democrats, they faced steep losses with Republicans, according to the survey.

However, this drop has been happening over several years, according to the image provided:

The purpose of the Axios Harris Poll is to measure how people feel about the “character, trust, and trajectory” of popular companies. It also measures how these differ between political affiliations. This is just a sampling and not necessarily exact.

The poll also has the Walt Disney Company ranked fifth as the most polarizing brand.

Disney falls in the middle of the top ten coming behind the Trump Organization, Fox, Hobby Lobby, and FTX. When Pfizer, TikTok, and Twitter are more favorable, you might have a problem.

Surprisingly Anheuser-Busch isn’t on the list. Here are the top 10 “most polarizing” companies according to the Axios Harris Poll.

1. Trump Organization
2. Fox Corporation
3. Hobby Lobby
4. FTX
5. The Walt Disney Co.
6. Pfizer
7. Facebook (Meta)
8. TikTok
9. Twitter
10. Chick-fil-A

Along with the polling results for this year. Comparisons for previous years were posted.

One of the interesting points made is how the normally bipartisan dislike for the Walt Disney Company split this year with Democrats jumping up almost 8 points in favorability while Republicans dropped 14 points.

Compared to 2022 Republicans favored Disney over Democrats and they faced larger losses with them as well.

• Overall, Disney’s Reputational Quotient, or RQ®, score was 70.9 out of a possible 100. That’s down from 73.4 in 2022. The score represents measurements across multiple dimensions that touch on character, trust and trajectory.
• Among Democrats, it jumped to 80.3 from 72.5. But it plunged 14 points with Republicans, to 61 from 75.
• The average RQ gap between Republicans and Democrats in this year’s survey was 4.4. In Disney’s case, it was 19.3. While Disney’s reputation score has been declining since the 2017 survey, that trend had been bipartisan — until this year.

The survey also determined these changes in feeling toward the Walt Disney Company since 2022:

• 44% of Democrats but only 21% of Republicans said they were feeling more positive about the company.
• Meanwhile, 42% of Republicans said their feelings about Disney grew more negative over the past year, compared with 12% of Democrats.
• 35% of Republicans but just 19% of Democrats said Disney has become less authentic and more divisive.
• 63% of Democrats but 46% of Republicans describe the company as family-oriented.

Axios stated that the opposition to the Parental Rights in Education Bill has caused the divide:

“In voicing opposition to DeSantis’ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year, Disney gained favor with Democrats but took such a large reputation hit with Republicans that its overall reputation score was severely impacted.”

Disney has a problem and their CEOs have been a large part of it. There has to be a middle ground and Disney needs to find it quickly.

Interestingly as the RQ gap increases, their stock and reputation are decreasing.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!