The MTV audience is apparently used to such marketing tactics.

Mr. Sirulnick said that all the candidates "had to put on a different thinking cap" for the MTV audience.

That, apparently, is what today's MTV audience thinks of as ancient rock history.

The MTV audience, by comparison, continues to expand and is now watched by about 277,800 people daily, Mr. Cohen said.

During its first year, the channel was a poorly programmed dumping ground for video clips that were considered too unhip for MTV audiences.

In 1994, 7-Eleven sought to remake Slurpee's "brain freeze" campaign targeted to the adolescent MTV audience.

This rough was screened for some executives in Hollywood who recommended that film be cut down to under two hours "because we're an MTV audience these days."

"Armageddon" has a pace that is regarded as geared more toward an MTV audience.

Bey stomped out like it was a catwalk in Milan, telling the MTV audience to feel the love growing inside her.

The creators say they don't think the style references are too rarefied for an MTV audience made up of 16-year-olds.