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CCFC Wants FCC To Ban Product Placement
In Kids Shows, Limit In Primetime
Says embedded advertising is misleading
speech and thus deserves "no First Amendment protection"
John
Eggerton
Broadcasting & Cable
November 24, 2008
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC)
wants the FCC to explicitly ban product placement in
kids shows and limit it in primetime, saying embedded
advertising is misleading speech, and thus deserves "no
First Amendment protection."
That came in a filing with the FCC, which is considering
possible changes to its policies on embedded advertising
and sponsorship identification.
"Not only does the use of embedded advertising in
television programming fail to provide any useful
consumer information about a product, it is misleading
because the very success of embedded advertising is
predicated on obscuring the commercial message
altogether," the group argues.
Broadcasters have argued just the opposite, that the
speech is fully protected because it is so inextricably
intertwined with the programming that it is not actually
advertising but part of the "expressive" speech of the
program content.
Broadcasters do not oppose clarifying that product
placements are off limits in kids shows, but CCFC also
wants limits in primetime, arguing that a lot of kids
watch those shows. For example, CCFC points out, 2
million kids ages 2-11 watch American Idol each week, a
show that is filled with plugs for Coke and Ford. "[B]ecause
children watch a significant amount of programming that
falls outside of the narrow definition of children’s
programming, CCFC encourages the FCC to protect children
from misleading embedded advertising techniques by
limiting their use during those hours of primetime
broadcast programming when children are likely to be in
the audience." the group said in its filing. That would
mean limits in the 8-10 p.m. hour, given the FCC's
definition of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. as the period in which
kids are most likely to be watching.
It is unclear whether the FCC will take any action on
the embedded advertising review before the
administration change in January. FCC Chairman stil has
two scheduled meetings--in December and January, but
neither agenda has been released.
Dubbing themselves National Media Providers (NPM), the
broadcast networks, advertisers and some station groups
essentially told the FCC two weeks ago to butt out. The
coalition says new rules are unnecessary, could prove
economically harmful as the economy is tanking, and
might violate the First Amendment.
The FCC has been collecting comment on proposed changes
to its 70-plus-year-old sponsorship-identification rules
to reflect the rise of video-news releases, product
placement and product integration.
Broadcasters and advertisers argue that in a TiVo world
of hundreds of channels, the 30-second commercial just
doesn't cut it anymore. |
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