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Article: Could 455 million `High School Musical' viewers be wrong? If 'HSM' is just for tweens, why are the grown-up entertainment media so obsessed with Zac Efron?(MediaWorks)
- Article from:
- Advertising Age
- Article date:
- October 20, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Simon Dumenco
Here's a media/marketing mystery: Why the hell is Zac Efron, of all people, one of the biggest stars in the world right now?
First, let's acknowledge just how weird it is that so many grown-ups know who Efron is. Even if you've never seen "High School Musical''-and even if you don't have a tween in your household-you probably know that he's the male lead of that TV-movie series, which leaps to the big screen with a second sequel, "High School Musical 3: Senior Year,'' Oct. 24. Such is the power of Disney's unstoppable "HSM'' juggernaut-a franchise that started off modestly enough as a low-budget 2006 Disney Channel one-off but ...