Experience America with the American Experience

September 16, 2008 on 4:01 pm | In Disney, advertising |

I love the countries in Epcot. Not as much as Futureworld (the part with the ball), but you get delicious food, some nice shopping (I got a bitchin’ Chairman Mao T-shirt in China), and friendly people. And the crowds are manageable. One of my favorites is, strangely, America. America gets its own pavilion called “The American Experience” where they host a 20-minute animatronic salute to the USA. It’s one of my favorite parts about Epcot and makes me feel good to be an American.

Of course, they have an American-themed gift shop. Replicas of the Constitution, books about Ben Franklin, Mickey Mouse shirts where he’s wearing red, white, and blue, and all that fun stuff. And, for some reason, this:

It’s a David Beckham t-shirt. Of course, he plays for the US now, but only for a year or two. He’s still remarkably British, I doubt he changed his citizenship just to play on a team. Not only that, they had a selection of David Beckham biographies. IN THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE GIFT SHOP. Did we not have enough American athletes we could spotlight? Why is a chunk of the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE gift shop devoted to an athlete from a country we proudly fought to free ourselves from?

David Beckham, GET OUT OF OUR GIFT SHOP. Britain has a lovely gift shop who’d be happy to host your biography.

Thankfully, his shirt wasn’t being sold for full price, so he’s not making much off them. USA! USA! USA!