|
July 30, 2008
Contact: Josh Golin (617-896-9369;
josh<at>commercialfreechildhood.org)
For Immediate Release
Advocates to Channel One: Stop Marketing Prescription Drugs
to Children
Advocates for children are demanding that Alloy Media and
Marketing immediately remove ads for prescription drugs from its
Channel One website. Channel One, the controversial in-school
news program that makes viewing ads a compulsory part of the
school day for grades six through twelve, was purchased by Alloy
in 2007. As part of its user agreement with schools, Channel
One has pledged not to market prescription drugs to its young
audience. Yet ads for the prescription acne medications
Differin and BenzaClin have been running on the Channel One
website for at least the past week.
“Alloy is taking Channel One to a new low by peddling
prescription drugs to children,” said Dr. Susan Linn, director
of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “The company
that has done more than any other to commercialize classrooms is
now delivering young students to the pharmaceutical industry.”
The
ads were spotted on channelone.com on July 20, 2008 by Jim
Metrock of Obligation, Inc., a nonprofit advocacy organization
that monitors Channel One. Because the ads clearly violate
Channel One’s advertising policy, Metrock contacted Paul
Folkemer, Senior Vice-President and Director of Education at
Channel One Network and Matt Diamond, Chief Executive Office of
Alloy Media and Marketing, to demand that the ads be removed.
Neither Folkemer nor Diamond has responded. On July 22,
Obligation, Inc. filed a complaint against Channel One with the
Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). CARU guidelines
state that advertisers should not advertise drugs to children.
“There has never been a better time for schools to pull the plug
on Channel One,” said Metrock. “There is simply no reason for
schools to deliver a captive audience of students to a company
like Alloy that violates its own meager advertising policy and
advertising industry standards.”
One
of Channel One’s drug ads links to Acneheroes.com, a
kid-targeted website created by the pharmaceutical company
sanofi-aventis to promote BenzaClin, a prescription drug for
acne. The website features actor Cody Linley, who introduces
himself as one of the stars of Hannah Montana, which airs
on the Disney channel and is among the most popular television
programs for children.
“It’s outrageous that Alloy is abetting a pharmaceutical
company’s cynical exploitation of children by linking a popular
program like Hannah Montana to a branded prescription
drug,” said Dr. Linn.
For
Dr. Victor Strasburger, Professor of Pediatrics at University of
New Mexico School of Medicine, the Channel One ads are part of a
disturbing trend in which children are targeted with ads that
tout drugs as the answer to life’s problems. “If we want kids
to 'just say no' to drugs, how can we possibly beam ads at them
for prescription drugs?” asked Dr. Strasburger. “Early on, they
get the clear message: there's a drug for every problem we
have."
To
view Channel One’s advertising policy and screen shots of the
Differin and BenzaClin ads, please visit
http://commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/prescriptiondrugs.html.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is a national
coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy
groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful effects of
marketing to children through action, advocacy, education,
research, and collaboration among organizations and individuals
who care about children. CCFC supports the rights of children
to grow up – and the rights of parents to raise them – without
being undermined by rampant commercialism. For more
information, please visit:
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org.
|
