New York, NY – April 23,  2009 – The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., has referred television and magazine advertising for the New Line Cinema film “17 Again” to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for further review.

Television and magazine advertising for the film, rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for “language, some sexual material and teen partying,”  aired, among other times, on April 1, 2009, on Nickelodeon, during the program “Drake and Josh” between 6:00 – 6:30 p.m.  In addition, a full-page ad for the movie appeared in the April, 2009 edition of Nick magazine. This raised concerns regarding the appropriateness of advertising a film rated PG-13 to children.

CARU’s Self-Regulatory Program for Children’s Advertising states in part that advertisers “should take care to assure that only age-appropriate videos, films and interactive software are advertised to children, and if an industry rating system applies to the product, the rating label is prominently displayed.”

In evaluating whether the content of movie and video games are inappropriate for children, CARU looks to industry ratings. According to MPAA Advertising guidelines, PG-13 films with certain content may only be advertised to particular audiences. The Advertising Administration works with film companies in targeting ads appropriately; ads for films containing mature content may not be directed toward children. 

Pursuant to an agreement with MPAA, this case has been referred to the association for further review to determine whether the film is appropriate to be advertised to children.