Yesterday's Essentials post about Jordin Sparks and her remarks at the VMAs provoked some interesting discussion in the comments about this year's VMAs and the issue of tween/teen/twentysomething overlap. Izzy pointed out:

I was kinda upset at Nickelodeon for trying to prompt kids on Nick (the cast of iCarly "inviting" kids to watch the VMAs) - and then having adult topics in Russell Brand's opening (ahem, "self gratification" ahem). I was disappointed they would slyly pull kids to be viewing audience for content not suitable for U13 tater tots.

While LizB said:

I also thought the MTV awards didn't know what they wanted. Given Brand's humor, and given the audience for Twilight, Jonas Brothers, and HSM — well. I don't think the 2 audiences appreciated each other.

We've written on Ypulse that just as college students make their beds with SpongeBob or Sesame Street sheets, older teens *heart* The Jonas Bros., HSM, Hannah and the rest. But the core audience for tween entertainment is still screaming 8-13 year olds, and inviting them to watch a show with adult humor not only exposes younger viewers to inappropriate content but may leave both audiences unsatisfied. I also think MTV's version of HSM, "The American Mall" flopped with its core audience of older teens because it was too earnestly aimed at them. It's ok for them (older teens) to *heart* something for younger tweens, but that doesn't mean they want their own version.

On the flipside, Disney has been marketing HSM 3 on MySpace, which is a site for users 14 and up. We know that lots of tweens are lying about their age and have MySpace accounts — is marketing tween content on the social networking site quietly admitting this or an attempt to go after the older teens who *heart* tween fare.

What do you think? Should these media companies promote squeaky clean tween fare on sites for older teens? Should MTV be promoting the vmas on Nickelodeon? Does mixing these audiences dilute or grow Disney/Nick and MTV's brands?

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