CARU Asks Lionsgate to Pull DVD Spot
Lionsgate Entertainment has been asked by The Children’s Advertising Review Unit to refrain from advertising one of its DVDs during times when children’s program is on television.
The DVD, the Ultimate Avenger, is rated PG-13. CARU said that the ad for the DVD broadcast on the Fox Networks 4Kids TV block of programming, which airs on Saturday mornings between 8 a.m. and noon. A large number of children under 12 years of age watch the programming, CARU said.
CARU said that the ad for the movie, which received its PG-13 rating for action violence, is in violation of its self-regulatory guidelines.
In its decision, CARU said: “In advertising videos, films and interactive software, advertisers should take care that only those which are age-appropriate are advertised to children.”
CARU discovered the ad during routine monitoring of ads targeting children. The unit said that Lionsgate is not a “traditional” children’s marketer and that it declined to provide materials requested by CARU including product samples.
Lionsgate said the ads had ended and would not be rerun and that it had reviewed its procedures for advertising aimed at children.
CARU is the children’s advertising review unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus
