Disney vs. Diageo: Disney

In the competitive spirit of college basketball's annual championship tournament, The Motley Fool brings you Stock Madness 2007! Our writers are making head-to-head arguments for their chosen stocks (but not necessarily investment recommendations -- this is, after all, a game), and you'll pick the winners with your article recommendations and Motley Fool CAPS ratings. Who will win the right to cut down the net? Let's tip things off and find out!

This has got to be some kind of mistake. We have Captain Morgan squaring off against Captain Jack Sparrow. We have Red Stripe against glass slippers. I realize that Disney (NYSE:DIS) may seem to be the more sobering choice in the literal sense, but I mean that in every sense of the word.

I'm not going to badmouth Diageo (NYSE:DEO) on the hardcourt for its alcohol business. I'd lose this battle in a heartbeat if I were pandering for the teetotaler vote. All I want to do is show how Disney just happens to be the better investment.

Disney is more than just the quintessential brand in family entertainment. It means different things to different people. Young families will naturally think of the theme parks, animated features, and the Disney Channel, but to a sports fan, for example, Disney is ESPN. In a soap-opera addict's world, Disney means the long-running ABC serials, as well as SOAPnet. A retail merchandiser, meanwhile, may marvel at the kind of premium that a Disney-branded character can bring to a garment.

It all adds up, of course. If it didn't, I wouldn't be here extolling the virtues of investing in Disney. Over the past four years, revenues have soared 35% higher, and operating profits have more than doubled. Diluted earnings per share have skyrocketed 170% higher, and free cash flow has exploded nearly fourfold.

Disney has competitors, naturally. It goes up against regional chains like Six Flags (NYSE:SIX) and Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) on the amusement-parks turf. There are hundreds of TV channels that it battles with. The multiplex can be a pretty crowded place, too, even though Disney was the studio behind the two highest-grossing films of 2006.

The good news is that all roads lead to quality. Do you really think it's a coincidence that both Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR) carry Radio Disney? Of course not. They also each happen to carry several ESPN sports-programming channels.

It's all about the brand. Oh, I know that Diageo is loaded with great brands too. Smirnoff? Guinness? Nice. But I feel more comfortable with the kind of company that defines childhood exuberance and caters to the inner child that sleeps but never dies in every adult.

Does Disney deserve to move on to the next round? If so, simply follow this link and rank the stock "outperform" in Motley Fool CAPS. If you want to pick a fight with Mickey, vote it "underperform." Later this week, we'll tally your votes to determine which stocks will advance one step closer to the title.

Click Diageo to read the opposing article in this contest, and click here to read all of the other entries in the tourney.

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Disney is an active recommendation in the Stock Advisor newsletter service. You're welcome to find out why with a free 30-day pass to access all of the newsletter's content services, including a lively subscriber-only discussion board.

Cedar Fair and Diageo are Income Investor picks.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been going to Disney World since he was a kid. That kid never sleeps. Yes, he owns shares of Disney and units in Cedar Fair. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.