The Federal Trade Commission has received complaints from The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood group saying ads and toys connected with the movie are being targeted toward children as young as two years old, even though the film is rated PG-13.
Communicating with the FTC, the group asked the commission to work with the media and toy industry to create a uniform system which would require toys marketed with PG-13 movies only be marketed to children over 13. They also asked them to look at how media companies are marketing to young children.
Evidently they got the attention of the commission, as Jack Dizdul, a spokeswoman for the FTC, said, "We are reviewing the letter with great interest."
The advocacy group said to the FTC that they recorded movie ads for the "Transformers" during television shows rated TV-Y for all children, which includes from ages 2 to 6. They also recorded marketing on shows that were rated for children the age of 7 or older.
"'Transformers' is a film that the industry itself deems to be too violent for children under the age of 13," said Susan Linn, a psychologist who co-founded the group. "When the toys and the film have ads during shows that children watch, the message that everyone is getting is, 'Well, it must be fine.' Yet the industry is actually saying that it isn't."
A spokesman for Hasbro Inc. responded saying the "Transformer" toys have been around since 1984, way before the movie.
The toy issue is a little more detailed and complex, but the idea of marketing a PG-13 movie to very young children seems to be sending a confused message from the studios.
You rate a movie PG-13, but you then target children who the industry itself says are too young to see it? What does that mean? Why is that tension there?
The industry isn't helping itself by sending a confused message through these types of actions. If they continue to do this kind of stuff, they're going to get the type of government attention that they've been fighting hard to avoid.
The actions of marketing a PG-13 movie to children starting at the age of 2 is just asking for trouble. This is a dumb move on their part. Dreamworks and Paramount should know better.
Transformers will hit the theaters on July 4.
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