FTC tells MPAA to look harder at movie marketing practices
The Federal Trade Commission has asked the Motion Picture Association of America to take a second look – no, really look at them this time – at their guidelines regarding how PG-13 movies can be advertised to young kids.
The urging for more thought comes after a summer where shows for young children like those on Nickelodeon hosted commercials for PG-13 fare such as Transformers. Child advocacy groups said the message to the MPAA, which did not come with any enforcement behind it, were disappointed by the move.
The MPAA apparently does not have a hard and fast rule regarding placement of commercials for PG-13 movies like it does for R-rated films. That’s largely because the rating, unlike others, is a suggestion and not actually a rule.
Each PG-13 movie is considered separately by the MPAA in how and where it can be advertised.
So the MPAA is basically saying to parents, “We suggest that the material in the movie may be inappropriate for young audiences. But we’re fine with ads being shown to those kids, who – because they all wish they were older – will then create such a commotion in your house when you say they can’t see it.
I also like that the MPAA says their restriction on R-rated films being advertised to children is “voluntary.” That’s mighty big of them, deciding for themselves that it’s inappropriate to advertise Saw IV during Spongebob Squarepants.
The only thing, it seems, that’s as broken as the ratings system is how it relates to advertising guidelines. If a movie may contain inappropriate material then it shouldn’t show up on kids shows. That’s not going to solve the problem – there are still plenty of sticker books and magazine covers to lure them in – but it’s a start.
Related posts:
- Universal and Fox the latest to get slapped because of advertising to kids Universal
- No marketing numbers from the MPAA I’m
- MPAA’s Graves wrong on PG-13 advertising Joan Grave
- Glickman on the history of ratings The most i
- Letting more of the audience in I’m
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Good! It annoys the hell out of me when I’m watching some family friendly TV show and a completely inappropriate commercial pops up.
Vic