It's Not Easy Being Green

In the months leading up to the release of "The Muppets," you couldn't turn on a television without seeing a myriad of (rather clever) ads for the upcoming movie.  These ads ranged from the typical movie trailer to  spoofs of Bollywood movies.  Marketing for this hit is easy to understand.  Publicity, however, is a little bit harder to grasp.  According to Drake's article, publicity of a film refers to all of the media coverage it receives without payment.  Examples include news stories, interviews, and the like.  So for a film like "The Muppets," when your stars are literally puppets, how do you publicize?

The solution is pretty ingenious, actually.  The publicity department decided to treat Kermit and the gang as real life Hollywood stars.  And, thankfully, interviewers and the public go along with the gag.  In the interview Ellen did with Kermit before the release, she comments, "This is the first time I've ever had a frog on the show!" No kidding.

These appearances are obviously unique, and, therefore, stick to the audiences mind.  For a publicity team, that is all you can ask for.  "The Muppets" was a smash hit.  By its third week in theaters, these puppets had made over $67 million, surpassing all other previous Muppet movies.  This seems to be a pretty big feat to me, considering how long it had been since our furry friends had made a film.  It appears that the "standard rich and famous" contract for Kermit the Frog and Co. won't be expiring any time soon.

Questions:

1. Did you always know you wanted to work for Disney? What drew you to the company, and, specifically, to the Studios portion?

2. How did you first get involved with the company?

3. I really enjoyed "The Muppets." Can you describe how doing publicity for a film like that was different than ones without puppets? Were there challenges that normally don't occur with your other films?