Why Walt Disney Is Happy to See a Gay-themed Miley Cyrus Knock-off Video Go Viral
David Fudge, a 27-year-old magazine marketing executive, told The New York Times Media Decoder blog that he expected the Walt Disney Co. to come down hard and fast on his video, posted on YouTube, featuring gay men dancing and whooping it up at Fire Island, N.Y., to the tune of Cyrus's new single, “Party in the USA.” Cyrus is, after all, one of Disney's biggest franchises, a G-rated star of Disney movies, concerts and recordings. Instead, said Fudge, he got a call from Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide. “I was like, who?” Fudge told The Times. “He just said that he loved it and wanted to tell us that. He was extremely nice.”
The blog says that Ross declined to comment, but that another Disney executive said the video demonstrated that "Ms. Cyrus was broadening her fan base beyond little girls." The blog also notes that "at a time of declining CD sales, even a teen queen like Ms. Cyrus needs all the attention for her songs that she can get." And it got plenty. More than 240,000 views since it was posted on Wednesday should not hurt sales of Cyrus's new album, “The Time of Our Lives,” which arrives in Wal-Mart stores on Monday.
While Ross declined to speak to The Times, he did speak at Wharton earlier this year. Read about what he had to say in the Knowledge at Wharton article, "Do You Know Where Your Kids Are? Disney's Rich Ross Probably Does."
