Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are almost
as ubiquitous as their number-one apparel customer, Wal-Mart.
How did ex-TV stars with little singing or dancing talent
take over 'tween girls' minds? It all started with a music
video, of course.Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are almost as
ubiquitous as their number-one apparel customer, Wal-Mart.
How did ex-TV stars with little singing or dancing talent
take over 'tween girls' minds? It all started with a music
video, of course.
Pardon me for doubting that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are really
twins as opposed to, say, octuplets. They are, somehow all at once,
the world's richest teens, the soon-to-be-co-CEOs of a $1 billion
self-branding empire, owners of
America's best-selling girls'
videos, its most popular girls' video games, biggest celebrity doll
line, top girls' book franchise, and a line of apparel,
accessories, cosmetics, and home furnishings sold in
Wal-Mart. Toss
in the fact that they produced and star in a full-length feature
film (
New York Minute) now in theaters, and are preparing to
start at
New York University in the fall, and it seems a whole
slumber party of stunt doubles would be hard-pressed to play their
roles.
But the infant actresses of the TV sitcom
Full House have
truly grown up to be what amounts to queens of a far-flung,
many-tentacled business realm. "It is a full-blown empire," in the
words of Martin Brochstein, long-time editor of the New York-based
Licensing Letter. "I don't think that's overstating the
case."
You won't find many who will admit to overstating the case when it
comes to Mary-Kate and Ashley's business achievements. "I've been
in licensing for 22 years, and I've never been involved in
something like this," says Michael Stone, corporate executive vice
president of the Beanstalk Group, a New York licensing agent that
represents Mary-Kate and Ashley's many branded products, as well as
the likes of Coke,
Ford,
Harley-Davidson, and AT&T among past
and present clients.