Marketing of R-rated Movies to Be Controlled

Sept. 27, 2000 -- Eight studio executives confirmed in front of the Senate Commerce Committee today that children as young as 9 years old were tested for their reactions to R-rated, violent movies.

One of them, Mel Harris, the president of Sony, parent company of Columbia Pictures, called the test-marketing of a violent PG-13 film — The Fifth Element, an action science fiction story starring Bruce Willis — before the younger audience “a judgment lapse.”

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

“All of us in the media industry have a fundamental responsibility to help parents cope with the many entertainment choices facing their children,” said Peter Chernin, president of News Corp., the parent company of 20th Century Fox.

Ads Also in Question

The hearing also focused on another practice that has drawn parents’ ire: showing previews for R-rated films to audiences watching G-rated movies.

Films such as Scream III and The Cell, both rated R, often previewed before a G-Rated movie for children. According to the Parents Television Council, 83 percent of ads on television between the hours of 8 and 9 p.m. were for R-rated moves.

Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Friedman told the panel his studio does not systematically focus its advertising efforts for R-rated movies at young children.

Studio executives promised to urge theater owners to stop this practice, in hopes of convincing Congress that legislation would not be necessary. “We are not going to market R-for-violent films to 10 and 12 year olds,” said Stacy Snider, chairwoman of Universal Pictures.

However, Friedman acknowledged the industry has not always been as careful with its ads as it should have been. He said movies are art and there is no set formula for making them or marketing them.

Important First Step, FTC Says

Senate Commerce Committee chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, brought the heads of Hollywood studios to Capital Hill today in hopes of making them pledge to stop marketing movies to children — without imposing legislation. The hearing took place the day after the Motion Picture Association of America said the industry would stop “inappropriately specifically” targeting children in advertising R-rated movies.

Senators made threats of legislating change, if need-be.

“If you don’t try to make this really work, that you are going to see some kind of legislation,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas. “Because parents are throwing up their hands in frustration.”

But committee members also said they were hoping to enact change without legislation, saying they did not want to impede creativity or profits.

The Federal Trade Commission reported earlier this month that the entertainment industry was peddling inappropriate materials to children. FTC officials encouraged to see the industry heeding the call for improved self-regulation.

“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.”

Warner Brothers president Alan Horn said his company would go beyond the usual rating system for any advertising related to their movies. “We will supplement the ratings system and the letters with the reason for the rating,” he said.

“For example, we will use ‘V’ for violence, as well as ‘S’ for sexual content, and ‘L’ for language on every single marketing mechanism as well as on video cassettes, and DVD packaging and the preface of the film.”

Kathryn Montgomery, president of the Center for Media Education, said the industry’s initiative was an important first step, but added that the movie companies needed to extend their efforts to TV, by not advertising R-rated movies on shows popular with young audiences.

A study being released today by the Parents Television Council found that of 54 movie ads aired on broadcast TV from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. — the so-called family hour — 83 percent were for R-rated films. The sample was taken from Sept. 1 to Sept. 20.

Others groups argue that the movie executives were trying to sugarcoat a more fundamental problem — the rating system itself.

Senators Still Not Satisfied

Disney, the parent company of ABCNEWS, already has said it would prohibit theater owners from showing trailers for R-rated films before movies released under the Walt Disney label and that its ABC network would not accept advertisements for R-rated films during prime time before 9 p.m.

Network figures show that barely one in 10 viewers around that time are underage. But senators demanded that each movie executive renounce their studio’s past television advertising.

But these moves may not be enough to satisfy lawmakers, who say they want executives to make a broader declaration.

McCain expressed his displeasure with the voluntary guidelines.

“That language is not good enough because it leaves a subjective decision in your hands, and clearly some very bad subjective decisions were made in the past, as far as marketing this material to young children.”

ABCNEWS’ John Martin in Washington, ABC Radio, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.