This year has been a big one for demonstrations in the UK: the doctor’s strike, calls for Cameron’s resignation, anti-austerity. It was certainly a winter of discontent.

Watching the protests, my mind goes back to 2008, when 32 people were arrested protesting about wages and working conditions at Disneyland. Nothing unusual about that – Disney is notorious for treating employees poorly. Why was this demonstration any different?

Many of the protestors were dressed as Disney characters.

The move was a stroke of genius: newspapers all over the world ran the story. Headlines such as ‘Snow White arrested’ and ‘Peter Pan feels the long arm of the law’ ran alongside pictures showing Mickey, Snow and Peter being frogmarched to police cars, hands cuffed, heads held high. The employees tapped into the cultural power of Disney and used it to draw attention to their cause. And attention they got: worldwide!