Coalition Wants Congress to Authorize FTC to Protect Children from Harmful Advertising

[Gary Ruskin <gary@essential.org>]

Commercial Alert					October 12, 1999

-- Twelve organizations sent a letter today to House Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) urging
Congress to authorize the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect
children against advertising that may harm them.

The letter was endorsed by the Center for a New American Dream, Center
for Media Education, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Center
on Alcohol Advertising, Commercial Alert, Junkbusters, National
Institute on Media and the Family, New Mexico Media Literacy Project,
Public Citizen, STAT: Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco, Teachers
Resisting Unhealthy Childhood Entertainment (TRUCE), and TV-Free
America.  The letter follows.

October 12, 1999

The Honorable Dennis Hastert, Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
The Capitol, Room H-232
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Trent Lott, Majority Leader
United States Senate
The Capitol, Room S-230
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Lott:

	In 1980, Congress revoked the authority of the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) to enact rules against advertisers who take advantage of the
vulnerabilities of impressionable children.

	There is no justification for this law.  Congress should be on the side
of children, not those who would exploit them for monetary gain.

	We urge you to repeal this law.

	As you know, advertisers barrage children each day with an onslaught of
psychologically sophisticated messages to generate desire for products. 
Many of the problems that beset our children arise from their obedience
to the messages they receive.  They are doing precisely what the ads
tell them to do.  For example:

Violent entertainment. Advertisers flood children with ads for violent
entertainment, including violent video games, movies and television. 
Following the recent spate of school shootings, some media experts and
others have suggested that violent entertainment may be contributing to
violence both in and out of school.  For example, Lt. Col. Dave
Grossman, co-author of Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, argues that some
video games "teach children the motor skills to kill, like military
training devices do. And then they turn around and teach them to like it
-- like the military would never do."

Alcohol.  Alcohol is a major cause of death among teenagers,
contributing to motor vehicle crashes, other injuries, suicide, date
rape, and family, school and other problems.  The FTC recently reported
to Congress that the alcohol industry often advertises to audiences with
large numbers of children -- as anyone who has watched a football game
on TV can tell you.

Tobacco. The deadly effects of tobacco advertising on American children
are well-documented by the FTC and the Journal of the American Medical
Association.  RJR Nabisco's Joe Camel ads helped seduce hundreds of
thousands of children into a lifetime of smoking.  Each day, another
3,000 children start to smoke; about a third of them will have their
lives cut short due to smoking-related illnesses. 

Junk food and fast food. Children are inundated with ads for Whoppers,
Happy Meals, Coke, Pepsi, Snickers bars, M&M's, and other junk foods and
fast foods.  These ads may contribute to skyrocketing levels of
childhood obesity.  About 25 to 30 percent of American children are now
clinically obese.  Similarly, childhood diabetes is also on the rise.
									
	It is a cause for shame that advertisers in this country would devote
their talents and energies to prod unsuspecting children in these
directions.  It is beyond comprehension that the U.S. Congress would
protect such behavior.  We urge Congress to restore the FTC's authority
to enact solutions to this problem before it gets worse.  Congress
should affirmatively direct the FTC to undertake such action, and
provide funding to enable it to do so.

Sincerely,

Center for a New American Dream
Center for Media Education
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Center on Alcohol Advertising
Commercial Alert
Junkbusters
National Institute on Media and the Family
New Mexico Media Literacy Project
Public Citizen
STAT: Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco
Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Childhood Entertainment (TRUCE)
TV-Free America

<-------------letter ends here--------------->

	On September 21, Ralph Nader and Commercial Alert sent a letter to
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Senate
Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain and Ranking Member Ernest
Hollings, House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley and Ranking
Member John Dingell, urging them to restore the FTC's authority to
protect children from advertising that may harm them.  The letter is at
<http://www.essential.org/alert/ftckidslet.html>.

	Commercial Alert was founded last year to oppose the excesses of
advertising, marketing and commercialism.  Commercial Alert's web
address is <http://www.essential.org/alert/>.

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-- 
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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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