License to shill

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood found that Burger King's "Iron Man" ads carrying the film's release date appeared in a daytime broadcast of Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants," and a Paramount advertisement for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (rated PG-13 for "adventure violence and scary images") was shown alongside Nickelodeon's "Fairly Odd Parents" at 3:30 p.m.

"Parents say, 'I thought, "How bad could [the movie] be because they have all these toys?" ' " says Susan Linn of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "And then they take their 5-year-old to 'Iron Man,' and there are extended scenes of torture."

Universal and Marvel Studios, which made both "Iron Man" and the upcoming "The Incredible Hulk," declined to comment. Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore said in a statement: "Paramount has been and will continue to be committed to advertising responsibly to children. Our goal is to ensure parents have the information they need to make appropriate decisions and choices for their families. So much so, our film advertising is reviewed by the MPAA's advertising bureau for the appropriateness of ads and ad placements, and we carefully select our promotional partners with whom we rely on to be equally sensitive to parental concerns."

There ARE new rules controlling how R-rated movies, explicit video games and music with racy lyrics can (and mostly can't) be sold to children, the result of 2000 hearings in the U.S. Senate. But the directives are much vaguer when it comes to PG-13 movies, which some parents feel are just as violent as R-rated movies were a decade ago.

The Children's Advertising Review Unit is an ad agency trade group charged with industry self-regulation in marketing aimed at kids. This March, CARU and the Motion Picture Assn. of America entered into an agreement in which the review unit will notify the MPAA if advertisements for films rated PG-13, R or NC-17 are "primarily directed to children under 12."

So far, CARU has flagged Paramount Pictures for two possible violations, saying the studio intentionally ran ads for "Iron Man" during unspecified children's programming hours and did the same with "Drillbit Taylor," a March release rated PG-13 for "crude sexual references throughout, strong bullying, language, drug references and partial nudity."