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Coalition Wants Companies to Stop Advertising on Channel One

Commercial Alert                       January 19, 1999

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                          NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:             For More Information Contact:
Tuesday, January 19, 1999        Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787

  Coalition Wants Companies to Stop Advertising on Channel One

 A broad coalition of conservative, progressive and family
organizations sent letters today urging companies to cease
advertising on Channel One because of its adverse effects on
children, schools and taxpayers.

 Channel One is a marketing company that delivers advertising
to children in schools.  Though Channel One packages itself as a
“news and educational” company, it boasts to potential
advertisers that it is “viewed by more teens than any other
program on television.”  Each school day, Channel One broadcasts
two minutes of commercials and ten minutes of "news" programming
to about eight million students in 12,000 schools across the
country.

 The letters explain that companies should not advertise on
Channel One, and that Channel One does not belong in schools,
because Channel One uses schools to force children to watch ads,
wastes valuable school time and taxes spent on schools, and that
Channel One -- not parents or school boards -- decides its ads
and program content.

 Signatories to the letters include: American Family
Association, Association of Black Psychologists, Center for a New
American Dream, Center for Reclaiming America, Citizens' Campaign
for Commercial-Free Schools, Commercial Alert, Eagle Forum,
Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, National Institute
on Media and the Family, New Mexico Media Literacy Project,
Obligation Inc., Seeds of Simplicity, TV-Free America, and the
Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America.

 Corporations receiving the letter include: Proctor & Gamble;
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company; SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare;
Philips Electronics North America Corporation; Warner Bros.
Television, Inc; The Walt Disney Company; M&M/Mars; S.C. Johnson
& Son, Limited; RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp.; Kellogg Company;
Konami Corporation of America Inc.; JC Penney Company, Inc.;
PepsiCo, Inc.; Helene Curtis Business Units; Hasbro, Inc.;
Warner-Lambert Company; and Blockbuster Entertainment Corp.

 Following is the text of the letter sent to Durk I. Jager,
President, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Operating Officer of
Proctor & Gamble.

Dear Mr. Jager:

 We request that Proctor & Gamble remove all advertising from
Channel One.

 Channel One is a marketing company that delivers advertising
to children in schools.  Each school day, Channel One broadcasts
two minutes of commercials and ten minutes of "news" programming
to more than eight million students in 12,000 schools across the
country.

 Currently, Proctor & Gamble advertises Pringles, Clearasil,
and Noxema on Channel One.

 Proctor & Gamble’s advertising dollars provide some of the
financial resources which allow Channel One to continue to exist.
We regret Proctor & Gamble’s decision to support Channel One, and
hope you will reconsider this decision.

 We believe that Channel One does not belong in schools for
four main reasons.

     1.   Channel One forces children to watch ads.  Joel Babbit,
     then-president of Channel One, explained in 1994 why
     advertisers like it: "The biggest selling point to
     advertisers [is] . . . we are forcing kids to watch two
     minutes of commercials."  Channel One turns schoolchildren
     into captive ad watchers.  Schools should not impose
     advertising on children, nor should corporations be allowed
     to use schools as a vehicle for their commercial messages
     without informed parental consent.

     2.   Channel One wastes valuable time in schools.   A 1997 study
     found that the content of Channel One’s “news” programming
     was shallow.  In schools that show Channel One, students
     spend the equivalent of one full week each school year
     watching Channel One, including nearly one class day
     watching ads.  Schools are for learning, not for watching
     ads or drivel.

     3.   Channel One wastes tax dollars spent on schools.  One recent
     study concluded that Channel One's cost to taxpayers in lost
     class time is $1.8 billion per year.  Taxpayers should not
     be subsidizing the delivery of advertising to children in
     schools.

     4.   Channel One -- not parents or school boards -- decides its
     ads and program content. Channel One takes control over
     children’s experiences away from parents.  We want parents
     to choose who may affect their children's lives, not Channel
     One.

 We have recently asked three congressional committees
(Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; Senate
Committee on Labor and Human Resources; and House Committee on
Education and the Workforce) to conduct hearings on the effects
of Channel One on children, schools and taxpayers.  If
congressional hearings occur, we will likely direct congressional
attention to the companies that advertise on Channel One.

 We are resolutely opposed to the presence of Channel One in
schools, and expect to criticize Channel One in the future.  We
are also considering, among other activities, public criticism of
companies that advertise on Channel One.

 Channel One is a highly controversial way to advertise to
children.  We strongly urge you not to associate Proctor & Gamble
with the controversy and negative publicity surrounding Channel
One.  We hope you will refrain from advertising on Channel One in
the future.

 If you have any questions about this request, please contact
Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert at (202) 296-2787, Steven Schwalm
of Family Research Council at (202) 393-2100, or Jim Metrock of
Obligation, Inc. at (205) 822-0080.

Sincerely,

American Family Association
Association of Black Psychologists
Center for a New American Dream
Center for Reclaiming America
Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools
Commercial Alert
Eagle Forum
Family Research Council
Focus on the Family
National Institute on Media and the Family
New Mexico Media Literacy Project
Obligation, Inc.
Seeds of Simplicity
TV-Free America
Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America

                              -30-
-------------------------------------------------
Commercial Alert is a Ralph Nader watchdog group working to
oppose the excesses of advertising, marketing and commercialism.

For more information about the adverse effects of Channel One on
children, schools and taxpayers, see:
     1.   Coalition letter calling for congressional hearings on
     Channel One:
     <http://www.essential.org/alert/letter_McCain.html>
     2.   Joint statement urging Speaker Hastert to investigate how
     Channel One harms children, schools and taxpayers:
     http://www.essential.org/alert/chanel_one.html
     3.   The Hidden Costs of Channel One:
     <http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CACE/hidden_costs2.html>
     4.   Center for Commercial-Free Public Education web site:
     <http://www.commercialfree.org/>
     5.   Obligation, Inc. web site: <http://www.obligation.org/>

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---------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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