Offbeat | Brazil’s hottest YouTube star is a blue chicken. Next stop: USA

Brazil’s biggest YouTube star is a blue spotted hen named Galinha Pintadinha – Lottie Dottie in English – and she’s out to take over the world. At least, that’s how it feels to parents in Brazil.
The cartoon juggernaut is to Brazilian toddlers what Justin Bieber is to tween girls. Her Portuguese-language YouTube channel featuring traditional children’s songs has been viewed more than 1.8 billion times, which works out to almost 10 views for every single man, woman and child in Brazil.
The chicken’s rise to stardom – co-creators Juliano Prado and Marcos Luporini first posted the cartoon on YouTube and it took off by word of mouth, generating about USD600 million in revenue last year – shows the power of online media and the growing influence of the Latino market, said Devra Prywes, a vice president at online advertising technology company Unruly.
“If you have quality content, kids don’t care if you’re working out of your garage making content, or if you’re Disney,” Prywes said in a telephone interview. “Social video and online video – it’s the great equalizer.”
Last year, licensing of the cartoon’s image earned more in revenue than products bearing the names of billionaire Donald Trump, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck and Ferrari, according to License! Global, a news website that tracks licensing trends. Walt Disney Co., which owns the right to hundreds of characters from Frozen’s Princesses Anna and Elsa to Spiderman and Luke Skywalker, earned $45 billion, the most of any company.
In Brazil, Galinha Pintadinha hocks tablets, shoes and toothpaste. Giant fuzzy versions of her and her friends – a lying cockroach and a frog that refuses to wash his feet, to name a few — serenade party-goers at first birthday celebrations.
Privately held Bromelia Producoes Ltda, the 12-person production company founded by Prado and Luporini, has held talks to sell all or part of the company, and is developing a TV show, the two animators said in an interview. Already, the videos are available on Netflix, with English translations being rolled out this year.