Disney Ad Chief Rita Ferro Makes Upfront Entrance In Animated ‘Family Guy’ Short, Hails Company’s Knack For “Transcending Generations And Igniting Pure Joy”

Rita Ferro, president of global advertising at Disney, emphasized the company’s reach during the company’s upfronts presentation to advertisers Tuesday.

Before detailing the company’s daily interactions with half the world’s population, its industry-leading 11.5% share of content distribution in April (according to Nielsen) and its “billions of consumer touchpoints,” Ferro got animated. She was depicted in a short sketch that placed her in the middle of the Family Guy set, seated on the living-room couch in between Peter Griffin and his dog, Brian. (See a still from the short below.)

“Sorry I’m late – I was streaming,” Peter jokes in the sketch, emphasizing the last word of the sentence after he is shown leaving the bathroom. “I didn’t really hear the sink running in the bathroom,” the animated version of Ferro responds, before delivering a rapid-fire pitch for Disney’s wares.

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Taking the stage in human form at North Javits, the cruise-ship-sized event hall where Disney hosted its upfront, Ferro pointed to the ubiquity of Disney, across its parks, networks, studios and sports operations. Her remarks followed those of Bob Iger, who acknowledged the four senior leaders running various parts of the empire: Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Jimmy Pitaro and Josh D’Amaro.

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Ferro showed photos (and one grainy film clip) of her visiting DisneyWorld as a child. The screens spread out across hundreds of feet around the stage then showed a collection of crowd-sourced Disney photos. The company had encouraged those attending the upfront to submit their favorite “Disney memories.”

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Ferro said the company’s scale gives it a knack for “transcending generations and igniting pure joy … Other companies talk about users; we talk about our guests.”

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Here is a still from the Family Guy short: