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Writing about web page http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/329419/thirst-pockets-high-school-musical-/

Sometimes marketing tie-ins puzzle me to the extent my brain hurts a little. A few weeks ago in Tesco I was perusing the discounted bakery goods section and noticed a packet of Hanna Montana cake rolls. Why does this product exist? How are small pieces of rolled up cake relevant to the secret identity of a fictional teenage girl that sings? A Hanna Montana karaoke machine I can understand, but what sort of minds came up with the idea of Hanna Montana cake rolls?

If you haven't already followed the writing about webpage link it goes to an entry on a deals website for High School Musical 3 branded kitchen roll. Again... who, how, why, WTF? I haven't seen High School Musical 3, nor do I ever intend to, but I doubt that kitchen roll plays any significant part in the proceedings. This product is if anything even more baffling than the Hanna Montana cake rolls. I can recognise that there is a good percentage of the Hanna Montana target audience would also be partial to cylindrical sugary snacks wrapped in shiny foil, but I find it hard to imagine an overlap between the target audience for High School Musical 3 and kitchen roll. How many twelve year old girls are interested in the efficient cleaning up of kitchen spills?

I guess what it all comes down to is the Disney's desperate desire to squeeze every last possible cent from their franchises regardless of how incongruous the endorsement, coupled with the knowledge that if they put a picture of unrealistic idealistically styled digitally tweaked tween idols on a box then there will be children who ask their parents to buy it regardless of what the product is and some of them will have parents who make the purchase rather than take it as an opportunity to explain their offspring the concepts of merciless brand exploitation and mindless consumerism.

Mike Willis : 01 Feb 2009 11:35 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem