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Americas|Paraguay Loves Mickey, Its Cartoon Mouse. Disney Doesn't.
  
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paraguay-mickey-mouse-disney.html

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A person dressed in a costume that looks like Mickey Mouse holds a
child's hand in a grocery store.

Paraguay Loves Mickey, Its Cartoon Mouse. Disney Doesn't.

Mickey, a homegrown food-packaging company, is famous for facing down
Disney in Paraguay's Supreme Court. As the family business turns 90,
why is it still so popular?

Mickey, a Paraguayan company's popular mascot, greeting families,
taking photos and handing out food samples in a grocery store in
Luque, Paraguay.

Paraguay Loves Mickey, Its Cartoon Mouse. Disney Doesn't.

Mickey, a homegrown food-packaging company, is famous for facing down
Disney in Paraguay's Supreme Court. As the family business turns 90,
why is it still so popular?

Mickey, a Paraguayan company's popular mascot, greeting families,
taking photos and handing out food samples in a grocery store in
Luque, Paraguay.Credit...

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By Laurence Blair

Photographs by Maria Magdalena Arrellaga

Reporting from Asuncion, Paraguay

  * Sept. 14, 2024

Leer en espanol

One is a colossus spanning theme parks, merchandise and movies, with
150 Academy Awards, 225,000 employees and annual revenue of nearly
$90 billion.

The other is a third-generation family firm with 280 workers that
packages hot sauce, soy beans, multicolored sprinkles, a herb called
horsetail, six varieties of panettone and seven kinds of salt for
sale in Paraguayan supermarkets.

Yet Mickey (MEE-kay) is a household name to rival Disney across the
little-touristed South American nation of 6.1 million. In fact, a
visitor might assume they're partners.

There are the red uniforms worn by Mickey's staff. There's its
family-friendly slogan: "the obligation to be good!"

Above all, there's the cartoon mouse -- also called Mickey, and
indistinguishable from Mickey Mouse -- whose iconic circular ears
adorn the gates of the company's factory, its trucks and a mascot in
heavy demand at Paraguayan weddings.

But don't get it twisted, said Viviana Blasco, 51, sitting in the
capital, Asuncion, among Mickey-branded stationery, T-shirts, and
coffee cups.

The map highlights Paraguay's capital city of Asuncion, in the
southwestern part of the country, as well as the southeastern city of
Ciudad del Este, near the Brazilian border. It also locates the
northwestern Chaco region of Paraguay.
[gif]

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHACO

REGION

Paraguay

Paraguay R.

Asuncion

Ciudad

del Este

ARGENTINA

200 miles

By The New York Times

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