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Slideshow: Burlesque Fest 2007

Lifestyle Features

Marketing magic

Lisa Avant, a VP of TV Licensing and Franchise Management at the Disney Channel, calls the HSM brand “evergreen,” partially due to its gender-neutrality. While the HSM actors don’t necessarily boast a similar long-lasting warranty, Disney could always dump them and hire successors for a “Next Generation” class. It might not have worked for Saved by the Bell, but the N’s Degrassi: the Next Generation put the OMG drama back in the teen soap with more punch than its ’80s precursor.

Perhaps that’s Disney’s answer, too — loosen up on those deformed, twisty, conglomerate-sized puppet-strings, just a tiny bit. Of course, considering Disney’s late-July promise to ban smoking from Disney-branded films, and discourage it in movies distributed by partners Touchstone and Miramax, the company might be more than overdue for that kind of transformation. In its entire history, Disney has never been able to fully reconcile its saintly ethical code with a ruthless set of business tactics. It’s not very wise to sprinkle too much fairy dust around: you might wind up snorting it by mistake.

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