Selling of a Disney Celebration : Marketing: Critics see a conflict of interest in press members and financial analysts allowing the firm to pick up tabs at a Disney World birthday bash.

The promotional spots for NBC’s “Today” show last weekend mimicked one of advertising’s most successful taglines of recent years.

Aping the famous Disneyland TV commercials, “Today” co-anchors Bryant Gumbel and new mother Katie Couric sat on a couch while an off-camera announcer inquired: “Hey, Katie, now that you’re back, what’s the ‘Today’ show going to do?”

Couric flashed her girl-next-door smile and chirped: “We’re going to Disney World!”

And so they did, along with thousands of other journalists, security analysts, travel agents and convention planners from more than 35 countries--all of them invited by Walt Disney Co. to attend the opening of a monthlong celebration of Disney World’s 20th anniversary in Orlando, Fla.

With the finely tuned Disney promotion machine and the lure of Disney backdrops for the TV cameras, the birthday party was a hard story for the media to ignore.

On Disney’s part, the bash was nothing but astute marketing, observers say. But media critics warn that it is getting harder for journalists, Wall Street analysts and others who are expected to have an arms-length relationship with Disney to avoid conflicts of interest.

Disney paid for the hotel rooms for a number of the reported 3,500 visiting journalists from around the world. It provided rooms for many of the 135 Wall Street securities analysts who were briefed by Disney executives. It housed the hundreds of travel agents and meeting planners brought in to tour 600,000 square feet of new convention facilities.

And that’s not to mention the air fares Disney covered for more than 500 of the initial honorees of President Bush’s Points of Light volunteerism campaign. Among the directors of the foundation that supports the campaign are Disney Chairman Michael D. Eisner and NBC President Robert C. Wright.

“I don’t think it influences anybody,” insisted Raymond Katz, an analyst with Shearson Lehman Hutton who attended the fete. “Too much is at stake.”

No matter where one turned the TV dial in the last couple of days, the broadcasts seemed to be coming from Disney World in Orlando.

Not only were all the morning news shows there in varying degrees, but so were the national talk show “Live With Regis & Kathie Lee” (which is produced by Disney) and Larry King’s radio show. The syndicated show “Entertainment Tonight” broadcast features on the Disney World bash four days running.

The free publicity and good will generated by Disney’s promotional strategy is incalculable. One attendee said a Disney executive noted that 250 local radio stations had devoted their “drive-time” programs to the party celebrations this week.

Gumbel, in an interview Monday, grilled Eisner on some of the company’s current problems with theme park attendence and box office flops.

But otherwise, the “Today” show--in 20 segments Monday and Tuesday--featured everything from the items for sale in the 300 shops at Disney World to Gumbel and Couric chumming it up with life-size Disney characters.

While it is not unusual for overseas media to accept free hotel and travel for feature coverage in the United States, it is less common for network television news operations to have their hotel bills paid for by the subject of their coverage.

Most major newspapers have policies against such practices, although many smaller newspapers and trade publications do not.

But Gumbel, Couric and the 31 other NBC “Today” crew members had their hotel rooms paid for by Disney--as did much of the television and print media covering the event, according to a “Today” show spokeswoman. Delta, the “official” Disney World airline, also flew “Today” staffers to Florida in exchange for an on-air promotional tag at the end of the show, she said.

“I don’t think there was a conflict of interest,” Tom Capra, executive producer of “Today,” said in an interview late Tuesday. “We did two remarkable, good shows.”

Capra said that NBC had a barter arrangement with Disney World covering “Today” show expenses: In exchange for accommodations, NBC credited Disney for providing “production assistance.” Capra said the programs did not conflict with NBC News policy.

Media experts, however, say that such financial entanglements can pose problems.

“An organization that wants to maintain high credibility would not accept favors like that,” says Ralph Lowenstein, dean of the college of journalism and communication at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Lowenstein, however, does not blame Disney for trying. “There is nothing wrong with Disney offering something to help get publicity,” he said. “They are not unethical. Rather, it’s the press’s responsibility not to do anything that would appear to be a conflict of interest.”

The “Today” show was hardly alone in hyping Disney World’s 20th birthday. In fact, six weeks before the scheduled celebration, representatives from Disney went to New York to meet with producers from all the morning news shows.

“They offered carte blanche to anybody that wanted to bring all or part of their show down there,” says Ted Savaglio, executive producer of “CBS This Morning.” CBS and ABC’s “Good Morning America” opted to send only their weathermen--the morning news personalities most often associated with promotional stunts and glad-handing for the networks.

Unlike NBC, however, both CBS and ABC paid the air fares and accommodations of their weathermen who went to Disney World this week and did not cut barter deals. Indeed, Savaglio said CBS policy prohibits the news division from making promotional deals.

A spokesman for Disney World said the purpose of the media bash was to show off the new shows and attractions opening at the 43-square-mile theme park, as well as showcase the new convention facilities.

“We are the No. 1 vacation destination in the world,” Disney spokesman John Dreyer said. “We welcome coverage from any of the news shows, just as major league sports or the film industry. We think there is a great deal of general interest among the public in what is going on here.”

Security analysts, who hadn’t had a meeting with senior Disney management in more than two years, were awed at the hospitality. “They did a hell of show,” says Dick Adler, an analyst with Eagle Asset Management in St. Petersburg, Fla.

At one point, movie critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel--whose film-review show is produced by Disney--made an appearance to critique the Disney executives’ performance. The analysts loved it, Adler said.

Companies frequently wine and dine analysts, and junkets to meet corporate honchos or tour factories are not uncommon. Wall Street researchers insisted, moreover, that having their rooms and meals paid for by Disney would not influence their decisions about whether to recommend the stock.

The Assn. of Investment Management & Research, a Charlottsville, Va.-based organization that credentials financial analysts, does not forbid analysts accepting expenses paid by the companies they cover. “The presumption is that analysts are free to make their own independent judgments,” a spokesman said.

On the “Today” show, viewers saw little mention of Disney’s on-going political clashes over land development in Orlando and Southern California or controversies over the company’s hiring and employment practices.

But executive producer Capra said Gumbel “did not throw softballs” in his interview with Eisner and “hit him hard on the stock price.”

Disney’s stock performance has not met many analysts expectations over the last year; in fact, Disney executives told the analysts gathered in Orlando that the company’s fourth-quarter earnings would be 23% to 26% below last year’s level.

Capra defended the “Today” show’s deal with Disney and said he expected more of the same as network news divisions continue to wrestle with cost containment.

“TV is changing like crazy,” he said. “Barter is becoming an integral arrangement. . . . A mention on the air is worth a lot of money.”