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June 19, 2008
Contact: Josh Golin
(617.278.4172;
jgolin@jbcc.harvard.edu)
For Immediate Release
Coalition Demands FCC
Action on Product Placement and Product Integration
Citing the increasingly
blurred lines between television programming and advertising, a
coalition of twenty-three advocacy and consumer groups today
urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to immediately
adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on product
placement and product integration.
“The rise of product
placement and product integration is turning television shows –
including those watched by millions of children – into
program-length infomercials,” said Dr. Susan Linn, director of
the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) which
organized the letter. “It is essential that the FCC take
meaningful action to prevent television programming from
becoming a Trojan horse for branded messages.”
In September, 2007, FCC
Chairman Kevin Martin circulated an NPRM among the FCC
Commissioners. Later that month, calling inadequately disclosed
product placement “unfair and deceptive,” Congressmen Edward
Markey and Henry Waxman commended the Chairman for initiating
the NPRM and urged prompt adoption of the measure. But in
December, three advertising industry trade groups urged the FCC
to downgrade the NPRM to a Notice of Inquiry (NOI), a purely
investigative procedure that cannot lead to rulemaking. To
date, the Commission has not announced whether they will adopt
an NPRM or an NOI.
In a letter sent today to FCC
Chairman Kevin J. Martin, the Coalition detailed the rise in
television programming of both product placement and product
integration, in which dialogue, scenes, and even whole episodes
are scripted around a branded product.
The letter also noted that the
lack of regulation concerning product integration
has been exploited by marketers of everything from junk food to
alcohol.
The Coalition is urging the
FCC to adopt without delay an NPRM that includes cable and
satellite television. Failure to include cable/satellite
television in the NPRM, the letter argued, “would create a
sanctuary for unfair and deceptive practices.”
Signatories to the letter
include a diverse array of children’s media watchdogs, advocates
for public health, consumer groups, and child advocacy groups
including the Parents Television Council, Public Citizen, Common
Sense Media, Free Press, Children Now, Marin Institute, the
Alliance for Childhood, Dads and Daughters, the Center for a New
American Dream, the Benton Foundation, and the Office of
Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc.
“The diversity and breadth of
this coalition reflects the growing concern that marketers are
hijacking television content and foisting branded propaganda on
an unsuspecting public,” said Dr. Linn. “The rise of embedded
advertising deprives parents of the ability to protect their
children from unwanted marketing influences, threatens public
health, and undermines democracy.”
The complete text of
the letter and its signatories is available at
http://commercialfreechildhood.org/pdf/nprm/coalitionletter.pdf
Congressmen Markey and
Waxman’s letter to FCC is available at
http://markey.house.gov/docs/telecomm/Letter%20with%20Waxman%20to%20FCC%20re%20product%20placement.pdf.
For a timeline of
events concerning the FCC and integrated marketing, please visit
http://commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/nprm.html.
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