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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, April 11, 2003

Kids' Choice Awards target consumers of a certain age

By Lynn Elber
Associated Press

When Brad Pitt and Michelle Pfeiffer appear at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards at 8 p.m. tomorrow, the actors will be demonstrating more than a love of children.

Such A-list celebrities at a ceremony for the pint-sized set that's decidedly lower on the glamour scale than the Academy Awards testify to the power of young consumers and Nickelodeon itself.

Kids spend big, they watch the child-oriented cable channel, and the entertainment industry knows it.

DreamWorks is using the Kids' Choice Awards to begin the marketing campaign for its animated film "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas," which features the voices of Pitt and Pfeiffer.

"The kid audience for movies and music is an important one, and the talent roster shows their respect for the kid audience as they do for the adult audience at the Oscars," said Cyma Zarghami, Nickelode-on's executive vice president and general manager.

In 2002, the show scored its highest rating yet with a total audience of 12.5 million viewers, including 5.6 million children ages 2 to 11.

That's a respectable slice of young America which, according to one study of 6- to 17-year-olds cited by Nickelodeon, has a combined $70 billion in spending power.

Last year, Nickelodeon had 41 of the top 50 TV programs, on both network and cable, aimed at children 2 to 11 years old, according to Nielsen Media Research. The channel's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Fairly OddParents" were the No. 1 and 2 shows for the age group.

Taking advantage of such potency, stars with projects to pitch will spend time in a Los Angeles-area auditorium filled with boisterous fans.

Presenters include Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who co-stars in the new "X-Men 2"; Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini of "American Idol" fame, who are also in an upcoming movie; and Frankie Muniz, star of the Fox comedy "Malcolm in the Middle" and the big-screen "Agent Cody Banks."

The usually freewheeling ceremony features a burp-off (the first winner was Cameron Diaz) and the chance to get covered in the show's trademark green slime (Tom Cruise was a victim in 2001).