Disney, Valenti Vow Ban on R-Rated Movie Ads
September 13 -- R-rated movies: the new cigarettes! Yes, kids, another product that's really for adults but has not-so-secretly been marketed to teens all this time (can you say "Scary Movie"?) is getting regulated.
Just like you won't see Joe Camel puffing away on billboards anymore, you won't be seeing ads for, say, Miramax's R-rated Duets (which contains a violent shootout) during Dharma and Greg.
Just one day after a government study attacked Hollywood for marketing violent films to teens, the Walt Disney Co. announced it would no longer air ads for R-rated films on its affiliate network, ABC, during prime-time.
(ABC and Mr. Showbiz are both owned by the Walt Disney Co.)
That extends to its own R-rated films, distributed under the Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, and Miramax divisions, studio representatives said.
On Monday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a study that accused entertainment companies, including movie studios, of aggressively targeting kids with violent films.
Responding to the criticism, MPAA chief Jack Valenti vowed that the motion picture industry as a whole will refrain from marketing R-rated movies to underage children.
In testimony he prepared to present at the Senate Commerce Committee today, Valenti said, "We are going to examine how we advertise and conduct research so that we do not deliberately seek out the very young in the promotion of R-rated films."
Valenti plans to meet with executives of the major studios to determine how to keep kids and violent movies far, far apart.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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