Devoted to branding and building and protecting brands

It creeps me out to even be writing about the peek-a-boo photos of a 15-year-old girl but it serves the purpose of illustrating a brand issue.  Specifically, how the marketing of people differs from products and services.  Seems that mega-star Miley Cyrus of Disney fame (anybody still unfamiliar with Hannah Montana?) has model’s remorse about the Vanity Fair spread she and her posse of handlers agreed to and sat in on.  This one has the added bizarre-ness of those Miley look-alike photo teasers that were all over the Net last week?  So that was NOT Miley, or what?  See. This gets confusing.

With a product and its brand, it’s all about the value proposition and the promise of the experience.  With people, especially an up-and-coming megastar (scratch that – she’s already arrived) whose whole brand promise is squeaky-cleanliness, this starts to get very dicey – another of many reasons I stayed away from personal management and entertainment press agentry.   I trust that Miley won’t be deja Britney all over again.  But Hannah and her handlers are headed in the wrong lens direction right now.  We’re talking about a 15-year-old over here!   That “G” rating is for audience, not string underwear.