Disney Looking Into Cradle for Customers

The Walt Disney Company has started an ambitious and risky march toward the one corner of childhood it does not already dominate: newborns. Late last month, the company quietly began pressing its newest priority, Disney Baby, in 580 maternity hospitals in the United States.

A representative visits a new mother and offers a free Disney Cuddly Bodysuit, a variation of the classic Onesie. In bedside demonstrations, the bilingual representatives extol the product’s bells and whistles — extra soft! durable! better sizing! — and ask mothers to sign up for e-mail alerts from DisneyBaby.com. More than 200,000 bodysuits will be given away by May, when Amazon.com is set to begin selling 85 styles for a starting price of $9.99 for two; Nordstrom and Target will follow with more Disney Baby items, including hats. The endeavor dances close to a flame. Disney has suffered harsh criticism in recent years over products directed at the very young. In this new venture, the company gains access to the maternity hospitals through a company called Our365, a business that sells bedside baby pictures. Our365 pays hospitals for exclusive access, and companies like Disney pay Our365 to promote their own products. Our365 also has Fisher-Price and Procter & Gamble as clients. It is unclear whether mothers know of Our365’s financial ties to these companies.