Hollywood to Limit Marketing of R-Rated Films to Kids
W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 27, 2000 -- 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.
”I think we are starting a new era that didn’t exist before,” said MPAA President Jack Valenti. “We’re going to take a fresh look at the way we market our films.”
The Walt Disney Co. (the parent company of ABCNEWS), Dreamworks SKG, Metro-Goldwyn-MayerStudios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, TwentiethCentury Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. all signed on tothe agreement.
Some companies already have unveiled plans to go beyond theindustrywide effort. News Corp. said Tuesday that its Fox networkwould not accept ads for R-rated films in any family programming orshows in which 35 percent or more of the audience is under age 17.Also, the company’s Twentieth Century Fox Film label will asktheater owners not to show trailers for R-rated films during G orPG-rated movies.
Senators Grill Execs Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and the Commerce Committee chairman,Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accused the Hollywood moguls of usingevasive language in describing their commitments and pressed themto firm up their pledges.
“I don’t understand this language. It is filled withloopholes,” McCain said. Both senators went down the table, askingthe industry executives one by one whether they would marketR-rated films to children under 17, using such venues as Web sites.
But several studio representatives emphasized that certain R-ratedfilms, like Saving Private Ryan or Amistad, might besomething that more mature teens who are under 17 should still see.
Others resisted the idea that an audience with 35 percent of itsmembers under age 17 can always be disqualified as too young.
“We plan to use 35 percent as a guideline, but not anabsolute,” said Chris McGurk, vice chairman and chief operatingofficer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.
Taking Responsibility
“All of us in the media industry have a fundamentalresponsibility to help parents cope with the many entertainmentchoices facing their children,” said Peter Chernin, News Corp.president.
Disney already has said it would prohibit theater owners fromshowing trailers for R-rated films before movies released under theWalt Disney label and that its ABC network would not acceptadvertisements for R-rated films during prime time before 9 p.m.
But these moves may not be enough to satisfy lawmakers, who saythey want executives to make a broader declaration.
As top studio executives prepared to present their initiatives today on Capitol Hill, some lawmakers and children’s advocates already were questioning whether the industry was going far enough. “I’m appalled that the movie executives still have not statedthey will stop marketing violent movies to children. This is theleast they should do,” said Brownback, a longtimeadvocate on the issue.
Important First Step
The Federal Trade Commission, which reported earlier this monththat the entertainment industry was peddling inappropriatematerials to children, said it was encouraged to see the industryheeding the call for improved self-regulation.
Kathryn Montgomery, president of the Center for Media Education,said the industry’s initiative was an important first step, butadded that the movie companies needed to extend their efforts toTV, by not advertising R-rated movies on shows popular with youngaudiences.
A study being released today by the conservative ParentsTelevision Council found that of 54 movie ads aired on broadcast TVduring 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. — the so-called family hour — 83 percentwere for R-rated films. The sample was taken from Sept. 1 to Sept.20 this year.
Others groups argue that the movie executives are trying tosugarcoat a more fundamental problem — the rating system itself.
“It’s kind of putting a Band-Aid on a system that is trulyoutdated,” said Daphne White, founder and executive director ofThe Lion & Lamb Project. She is pushing for a complete overhaul ofthe movie rating system to make it more accessible to parents.
But Valenti maintains there is no problem with the ratingsthemselves. He offered several initiatives focused on explainingthe reasons for a given rating in print advertisement and on Websites.