Hollywood to Limit Marketing of R-Rated Films to Kids

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 27 -- Hollywood executives admitted today thatviolent films were test-marketed before audiences that includedchildren as young as 9 years old.

Top studio executives admitted these practices while testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee about their plan for limiting the marketing of inappropriate films to children.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, warned that if the industrydoesn’t take steps to keep violent films away from young children,“You’re going to see some kind of legislation.”

‘A Judgment Lapse’

Testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee, Mel Harris,president of Sony, parent company of Columbia Pictures, called thetest-marketing of a violent PG-13 film before the younger audience“a judgment lapse.”

The film was The Fifth Element, an actionscience fiction story starring Bruce Willis.

Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Friedman told the panel hisstudio does not systematically focus its advertising efforts forR-rated movies at young children.

However, Friedman acknowledged the industry has not alwaysbeen as careful with its ads as it should have been.

He said movies are art and there is no set formula formaking them or marketing them.

Other industry executives said much of the test-marketing wasdone by an independent company, National Research Group, not by thecompanies that produce the films.

Industry Defends New ApproachThe hearing took place the day after the Motion PictureAssociation of America said the industry would stop“inappropriately specifically” targeting children in advertisingR-rated movies.

The plan, calls for the movie studios to ask theaterowners not to show ads for R-rated films during G-rated movies andto not include people under age 17 in focus groups for R-ratedmovies without a parent.

More broadly, the companies have pledged to review theirmarketing and advertising practices so as not to targetR-rated movies at children, and they will appointsenior executive compliance officers to review these efforts.