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Disney reaches out to Latinas with "Cheetah Girls"

Posted on: Sunday, 20 August 2006, 17:03 CDT

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Disney Channel plans to welcome Spanish-speaking and Latino children to its audience as never before when it runs a Spanish-language version, with English subtitles, of its upcoming music-and-dance movie "The Cheetah Girls 2" during prime time.

The children's cable network -- enjoying its highest ratings ever this year from the popularity of original movies such as "High School Musical" and series like "Hannah Montana" -- plans a big marketing push in the Latino community behind "Cheetah" and its message of diversity.

"The Cheetah Girls 2," a sequel to the 2003 movie that became a huge hit with preteen girls, will be close-captioned in English and Spanish starting from its August 25 premiere. On September 15, it will run in Spanish with English subtitles.

Rich Ross, president of Disney Channel Worldwide, said the "Cheetah" promotion simply plays on a strength the network already has with minority audiences, who tune in to the Disney Channel at greater rates than other English-language networks.

"It seemed that it was the right movie to make that effort," Ross said. "We have to start trying more things to speak to more people."

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies estimates that $5 billion is spent on advertising to the U.S. Hispanic market.

The buying power of the 41 million U.S. Hispanic consumers is expected to rise to nearly $900 billion this year and $1.1 trillion by 2010, accounting for 9 percent of all U.S. buying power up from 5 percent in 1990, an AHAA spokeswoman said on Friday.

Carl Kravetz, AHAA chairman and head of the Cruz/Kravetz IDEAS advertising agency, said Disney "is no better or no worse than any other network" in trying to reach Spanish-speaking audiences.

"We are in an era of experimentation from a language perspective," Kravetz said. "Networks are trying to figure out what it's going to take to attract Spanish-speaking audiences to English-language television."

CBS launched the first primarily Spanish-language program on network television in 2000 with the Latin Grammys, which have since moved to Spanish-language television.

The Walt Disney Co-owned ABC network this year remade the popular Spanish soap opera "Betty La Fea" as "Ugly Betty," and its sitcom "Freddie" features a character who speaks entirely in Spanish with English subtitles.

But running the Spanish-language version of "Cheetah Girls" is a first, Kravetz said.

"They are dabbling. They are trying different things to see what works," he said.

Anne Sweeney, the co-chair of Disney Media Networks who recently won a Producers' Guild diversity award, said the company has gleaned its understanding of its marketplace through such initiatives as offering its prime-time programming dubbed in Spanish.

"If anything, this is going to be a huge learning experience for us. We are going to monitor it very closely," Sweeney said of the "Cheetah" Spanish-language debut.

Disney wanted to emphasize diversity -- racial and economic -- as well as "empowerment and unity" when it came up with the idea for the first "Cheetah Girls" movie in 2003, about four New York teens who aspire to a recording contract, Ross said.

Only one of the Cheetahs -- Dorinda, played by soap star Sabrina Bryan -- is white, and she lives in a foster home. Group leader Galleria, played by former "Cosby Show" star Raven-Symone, lives in a luxury brownstone with her fashion designer parents, a mixed-race couple.

Her best friend, Chanel, is Latina and lives in a funky flat with her divorced-but-dating model mother, while brainy Aquanetta, who is African-American, lives with her father.

Source: REUTERS

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