The New York Times reports that the Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) could be in for a world of hurt. That's because its $1 billion Miley Cyrus franchise is at risk thanks to the June 2008 cover of Vanity Fair. That's where you'll find the 15 year old Cyrus draped in a satin sheet -- and nothing else.
In case you don't have children of the right age, Cyrus is the star of the wholesome Disney Channel blockbuster "Hannah Montana." Retail sales for the franchise are expected to total about $1 billion in 2008. A motion picture is in the works for 2009 and Cyrus signed a seven-figure book deal with the Disney Book Group last week.
But all this money could be at risk for Disney. That's because people like Lin Burress who writes a marriage and parenting blog, Telling It Like It Is, is not a happy camper. Referring to the mountain of Hannah Montana retail items - makeup, shoes, clothes - in the marketplace the Times quotes her as saying: "Parents should be extremely concerned. Very young girls look up to Miley Cyrus as a role model."
It should be interesting to see whether this Cyrus publicity hurts or helps Disney stock. Even if the entire Hannah Montana phenomenon went up in smoke, it would account for a fairly modest percent of this $35 billion company's revenues.
But even if it does, Disney has a long track record of creating child stars who grow up (remember Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake?). So I am guessing Disney has the next Miley Cyrus in its corporate incubator even as we speak.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Disney securities.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. I'm not surprised. Disney has gay day and celebrates perversion. Cyrus is a scam on the children like most little celebrities. Walt Disnet was an atheist/humanist. Disney dollaer illiminated the word god from it's currency. I'm not judging Molly or Walt........just stating well known facts about the people and the profession. It's a cheap business with tacky frills and immorality at it's core. Talent alone isn't enough. Flesh must be shown. Now, if Trump can buy Disney, we'd have Trumpland. Filled with golden idols and make-up for the gals to hide the reality. Plain folk acting like little gods. Sorry world. Billy Ray should be ashamed of his daughter, and more ashamed of himself. Take a stand, Billy, or denounce your god for gold. Can't spend it after a few years. Want be here Billy. Neither your little girl. Make a choice for the God you profess to believe in, or the world! Not much time for any of us. Whether you're 5 or 80...in time.......not much before YOUR TIME IS UP! No matter the age. No one has a future beyond the next breath, lest it be the will of God. Straighten her out. You're her father. If she goes astray...stop her. The world will destroy her, if you don't. She is not special to anyone accept for those who really love her. The reality should be obvious. Look at other ''celebrities'' lifes, in general. Sad and delusional. Just plain folk in a cheap business that pays alot because it steals your soul. Ask Jerry Van Dyke.......his daughter died in the PORN BUSINESS!
Posted at 10:57PM on Apr 27th 2008 by james
2. James, your comments are as poorly expressed as they are badly informed, closed-minded and off-target. Maybe take that nonsense somewhere other than the stock blogs, ok?
To the article: Disney might take a teensy dip, or even get a little bump from the -ahem- exposure, but they're a sturdy company with strong legs. Dumping the stock for something like this? Nonsense. If there were pictures of Miley topless with the board members, maybe it'd be time to sit your money some place else for a while - but Vanity Fair has a long history of scantily-clad but ultimately tasteful cover girls. It's rarely bad for their careers (is it ever?) and rarely gets them called harlots by enough people whose money matters to Hollywood anyway.
We may think of Miley as a young girl, but her young girl days are about over: she's got a couple more years to work under that umbrella and where her career goes from there is dependent on her ability to transition into being viewed as an adult. If this helps broaden the public's view of her, this is good for her long-term career which will be good for Disney as well.
Posted at 1:42AM on Apr 28th 2008 by Eddie Offermann
3. James, pay no attention to Eddie Hofferman, he has no idea what's going in life or any clue as to how badly this generation of perverted and godless kids is basically going to hell in a hand basket since they have never been taught any morals or modesty. This little girl is just another individual with that who-ris-h, yes w-ho-rish spirit that is so prevalent in this world today where mothers have failed miserably and their daughters are no where near any calibre of being wives and or mothers. All they have to offer are their bodies, nothing else. They might can sing, kick a soccer ball or slam a volley ball over the net but they can't even boil water for the most part and once when I said that some smart ass woman said, "well if she's good at soccer, she can make enough money to pay someone to do that for her", yea dumb butt, that's really going to help keep a home together isn't it, NOT! Why don't you women just quit having kids until you can learn how to raise them and that again would be with morals and character and something to offer other than a piece of ace.
Posted at 2:49AM on Apr 28th 2008 by warren garrison
4. I think Miley is very cute and vey talent...it is a shame people are so perverted to use a 15 year old girl and start making her into a whore...
I knew it was just a matter of time before they make her take her clothes off...
The entertainment business NOW is fill with Money hungry people who are in the real world "Mitfits"...and how they make and got their claim to fame is either screwing someone over or screwing someone or being part of the drug sean or gay sean...look with happened to the Olsten twins...they look like 80 year old women....truely they are on somthing..but hush hush...
Real talented people can not even get reconized ...
I like Miley and I pray that her father don't let her fall prey to these "Sicko's"...These misfits who got fortune and fame not by talent but by SEX and Drugs......
They will use and abuse her up!...get her on drugs, tell her how GREAT she is and after she is beyond reality and marketbility...take her down like it's nothing....
PLEASE...PLEASE ...SAVE her...She has great talent!
Posted at 6:54AM on Apr 28th 2008 by Shellfish
5. Another whore in the making.. it's only a matter of time until she becomes pregnant and ends up like Britney... You can't have a real role model for young girls now a days... Her parents should be ashame of themselves for selling out her daughter... Blah... money just bought her innocence... just like any other..
Posted at 8:58AM on Apr 28th 2008 by jane
6.
EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES IN THERE CAREERS .HE WHO HAS NOT CAST THE FIRST STONE. IT THOSE WHO LEARN FROM THEM THAT GO ON TO MAKE MILLIONS.
Posted at 9:29AM on Apr 28th 2008 by ED
7. She looks like a "ho" on crack cocaine! Good going, Billy Ray! She's a child, and you can't trust marketing at major magazines to portray a young, innocent child, any differently. That's their job, to sensationalize.
This is truly sad, and it is at a "child's" expense.
Hope you made your $$$, and good luck to ya!
Posted at 12:13PM on Apr 28th 2008 by Jane Doe
8. What hell....ARE PEOPLE GETTING MORE STUPIED EVERY DAY! Vanity Fair used miley to get poeple to buy their mag. Models did that stuff when they were 10 and they still do it now and little girls look up to them as well. Miley IS 15! 15! Ill ask you women, when you were around that age didnt you do stupied stuff? Tell the truth. You did things that show your underware or bras. Miley is just being a teen, I know tons of girls that do stuff like that, now if they put photos of them doing stuff like miley guess what....NO ONE WOULD CARE because they are not famous. Yes i understand Miley is a role model for little kids, but you cant tell her to stop being a normal teen. Miley never knew that her NOT EVEN NAKED photo would be used in that way, give her a brake, she only 15 dont you remember making stupied mistakes when you were that age? I hope you all understand what im trying to say
Posted at 4:42PM on Apr 28th 2008 by Joshua
9. Ok, first of all James, and to anyone else who thinks this, Walt Disney World DOES NOT celebrate Gay Day. Gay groups have just decided that they will celebrate a day to themselves and that just happens to be at Walt Disney World. Cheerleaders and marching bands do the same thing when they swarm WDW during the spring and summer. Christian groups designate times to go, and Disney Podcasters celebrate a week there. WDW can't say to ANYONE that they are not allowed to come into their parks and have fun. That is discrimination and WDW would have a lawsuit on them so fast it wouldn't be funny. WDW doesn't condone or support Gay Day and you intollerent idiots that think they do are misinformed. Do a little research instead of believing everything you hear.
On to Miley (not Molly.) If The Disney Company still supported Vanessa Hudgens after the nude photos of her surfaced, and they survived that, then they will survive this as well. In fact, I think it will just create a way for more people, older people, to learn about her, who she is, and that in turn can create a fan. I believe that Disney stock will either stay the same or rise because of this event. This is not the start of her being a "whore" as some of you have stated, she is growing up, she's 15 now, she can't stay a kid forever.
Posted at 9:59AM on Apr 29th 2008 by J. Day