Interactive Displays Tout Disney Jungle Games CD-ROM

Warthogs are not normally known for their good manners. So it should come as no surprise that Pumbaa, along with his pal Timon from "The Lion King," co-star in Burper, one of five games packaged in a Disney Interactive CD-ROM called Jungle Games. Consumers might be taken aback, however, when they respond to the instruction printed on the Jungle Games shelf talkers and countertop displays. "Press here for an immediate gut reaction," it urges, and an arrow points to a red button. Those daring enough to push the button will hear Pumbaa respond with a resounding belch."With software, it's very hard to obtain floor space," explains Will Kassoy, assistant marketing manager for Disney Interactive. "We wanted something unique. We wanted to create one of the most outrageous displays we possibly could."The countertop display, which holds six units, accompanies participating retailers' first order. The P-O-P campaign was tested during the peak holiday shopping season at 450 mall-oriented computer software outlets. The favorable results led to the production of more corrugated countertop units and similar shelf talkers.Timon and Pumbaa's Jungle Games is the Burbank, Calif.-based company's first CD-ROM product purely devoted to entertainment. It offers five different arcade-style games with a distinctly Disney twist. Burper, Jungle Pinball, Hippo Hop, Slingshooter and Bug Drop are titles that combine 10,000 cels of animation to attract players age 8 through adult. In fact, a special panic button is featured that lets those taking a game break during office hours to quickly leave their game in progress and switch to a pause screen featuring an "official memo" from Timon and Pumbaa.Kassoy says that these characters were selected to star in this program because the Gamebreak! brand targets an older audience. "We wanted to communicate the irreverance of Timon and Pumbaa in Jungle Games without leveraging the Lion King name and the Simba character, which skews younger," Kassoy says.The first Gamebreak! title began national distribution in November 1995. By February, the following related programs had been launched: Walt Disney Television's "Timon and Pumbaa" animated program, a national print campaign touting Jungle Games, a Jungle Games promotion through Disney's web site and "The Lion King's" Timon and Pumbaa's home video series.The United Group, based in Southgate, Calif., manufactured and cooperatively designed the P-O-P displays. The countertop unit measures 17 inches wide by 17 inches high by 5 inches deep.The displays are appearing in computer software specialty stores, computer superstores and consumer electronics stores.

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