FCC will take public comments for proposed new rules on product placement in children’s television programming
Good news: The FCC will be taking public comments regarding product placement rules on television.
While others throw in their two cents (Nanny state! Thought police! Does the FCC really think we’re stupid?!), we’ll concentrate on children’s television, program-length commericals, embedded advertising and the Children’s Television Act of 1990.
We also invite comment on whether the Commission’s existing rules and policies governing commercials in children’s programming adequately vindicate the policy goals underlying the Children’s Television Act and Sections 317 and 507 with respect to embedded advertising in children’s programming. If commenters believe that these rules and policies do not do so, we invite comment on what additional steps the Commission should take to regulate embedded advertising in programming directed to children. For example, we note that embedded advertising in children’s programming would run afoul of our separation policy because there would be no bumper between programming content and advertising. Should that prohibition be made explicit in our rules?
Comments from Commissioner Michael Kopps:
. . . [I]t is my strong initial belief that embedded advertising in children’s programming is already prohibited because it would run afoul of our existing requirement that there be adequate separation between programming content and advertising. The Commission’s existing policies in this area—which also include a ban on host-selling and tie-ins on children’s programming—target those practices that unfairly take advantage of the inability of children to distinguish between programming and commercial content. I hope we can move quickly to clarify our rules in this area as necessary and to take any appropriate enforcement action.
Comments from Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein:
After more than three years since I originally called on the Commission to update our sponsorship identification rules and to clarify the application of these rules to children’s programming, I am pleased that we are finally seeking comment on what additional steps the Commission should take. Just this month, I have spoken twice about the urgency to move this item forward and explained the need for the Commission to protect our children from marketers’ efforts to prey upon their unsuspecting minds. Despite longstanding majority support, including Chairman Martin’s commendable leadership, the release of this Notice has suffered from almost unprecedented delays. The Notice takes an important step in addressing the concerns that parents, experts, and I have been voicing for years about the unhealthy messages American media are feeding our kids. Children under the age of eight simply do not recognize that ads are trying to persuade them and tend to accept them as true and unbiased. . . . Because children are ill-equipped to identify advertising, especially when it is embedded in a program with their favorite character, we need to review and update our sponsorship identification rules. Those of us who areconcerned about children need to show leadership, not footdragging, in addressing these practices.
All emphasis mine. We’ll let you know when public comments are being accepted. Should be soon.