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During Jack Lindquist’s long career with Disney he came up with a lot of advertising schemes. Some worked (Gift Giver Extraordinare — drew in a record 12.5 million people to Disneyland in 1985), some didn’t (the Disney Classic — a terrific idea that encompassed more than just football in the college bowl games), and some never even got off the ground. But one thing’s for sure, Jack was never afraid to try something different and he was always inventive. As he said to me, “You gotta be willing to stick out your neck.”

One of his more inventive publicity plans involved Mickey Mouse, corn, and airplanes.

It was 1988 and Jack was looking for some way to celebrate Mickey Mouse’s 60th birthday. What he came up with turned out to be pure genius. On a flight home from Orlando, Jack looked out the window of the plane, down onto the patches of green, and got the spark for an idea to plant a cornfield in the shape Mickey’s head. He thought it was a great idea that would get a lot of publicity if from 30,000 feet up you’d look out the window of your plane and instead of seeing squares of green, you’d see Mickey Mouse.

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