I’m all for supporting PBS, but the Corporation for Public Broadcasting had nothing to do with the Muppets. Jim Henson’s deal was with Children’s Television Workshop, producers of Sesame Street, and he later sold the rights for those characters (minus Kermit the Frog rights to which Henson retained) to Sesame Workshop (CTW’s new name). The non-Sesame Street Muppet® characters were later sold to Disney along with the rest of Muppets Studio.

As great as this video is, it’s really a superb example of cross-brand marketing. It was created by the Muppets Studio division of the Walt Disney Co. in conjunction with the release of a new Queen album in 2009 on Disney Music Group’s Hollywood Records label. Animal’s segment is a particularly inspired work-around for some decidedly un-Disney lyrics.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is brilliant. I’m a huge fan of Queen, the Muppets, and Sesame Street, but let’s not kid ourselves, it’s just brilliant marketing. That being said, if I’m going to be marketed to, at least it’s brilliantly done.