Revitalizing The Muppets Franchise (fastcompany)
This month’s The Muppets movie tries to reverse decades of brand
mismanagement.
table p {font-size:15px !important;line-height:1.3em !important;padding:8px
!important;} THE FAULTTHE FIX
Selling out Some fans balked in 1996, when their beloved Miss Piggy started
shilling for Baked Lays, and then again in 2006, when she appeared in a Pizza
Hut commercial to sing suggestively about “Cheesy Bites.” Kermit’s bizarre
Ford Escape Hybrid ads didn’t fare much better.
starting fresh The Muppets takes place in the real world, just as Henson
intended. And fun, character-driven story lines abound: Miss Piggy, for
example, starts the movie as a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, and
Animal is in a clinic for anger management.
Overextending the brandTheme-park rides! Baby clothes! A Muppified version of
America’s Next Top Model! For decades, no possible extension was too off-brand
for Henson’s franchise, which made fans wonder if its ever-changing owners
knew what made the Muppets special at all.
focusing on the funny Though some corporate tie-ins are inevitable (see: a
line of Kermit the Frog kicks from Adidas), the modern Muppets promote
themselves on YouTube, where their cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” has
logged more than 22 million hits.
selling to kids Muppets movies have …
Paulo Maldini and his kids at the adidas fanatic NYC 2011
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