What muppets!

Muppets.....

Sorry real muppets....

No I’m not talking about Evra and Suarez (and they really are BOTH muppets…..) I’m talking about real Muppets, well those muppet Muppets anyway……

What is about the Muppets and attraction to brands?

Recently Orange created a brand partnership with them and this week Cravendale Milk have done the same thing around the new comeback film, one of their first partnerships.

Muppets characters Kermit the Frog and Pepe the Prawn will feature in a Cravendale TV ad, and supported by an on-pack promotion and in-store and digital activity. Cravendale hopes that the S$6m Muppets partnership will target families and initiate conversations between parents and children remembering the Muppets and encourage families to trade up from fresh milk.

I hate to tell them but that was in the 1950’s, when do kids ever sit down at a table and have breakfast these days let alone talk to their parents? Where have these guys been, on another planet? As for remembering the Muppets, unless the kids are all in their late 30’s and 40’s how will they reminisce about them? More likely look at their parents as being more out of touch that even they first thought…..muppets!

Over the last two years, The Muppet Studios has embarked on a proactive social and viral campaign. It all started with an epic cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody“, and was followed by more songss, iPhone apps and social media events with just the right amount of aplomb and visual humor.

Social media revived The Muppets but still are we crossing over from cute and drolly funny when you were a kid to clichéd and old fashioned now? Are kids really going to forsake Mario and Call of Duty for The Muppets?

The Muppets’ comeback is inspiring atypical, high-fashion product tie-ins for a kid-oriented movie. Items include jewelry from celebrity favorite brand nOir and a pair of $595 Diva Glitter pumps from Jerome C Rousseau. Quite why is beyond me, who will be buying these products as a result of the tie in?

Apparently unlike other more kid-focused Disney properties, the Muppets are perceived to be ‘cool’ and there’s a lot of crossover opportunity. I don’t know whether this is a series of 40+ marketing director’s fondly remembering a bygone era or whether it’s a masterstroke of nostalgic character marketing…..time will tell!