Advertising groups are urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject a consumer group’s contention that Nickelodeon’s new “Zevo-3” toon — produced by Skechers Entertainment and based on characters in a Skechers shoe ads — amounts to an illegal program length commercial.
“At its core, the petition wants ‘Zevo-3’ banned based not on the show itself, but based on the circumstances of its creation and because Skechers may get an ‘advertising boost’ from the mere existence of the show,” the Association of National Advertisers, the American Association of Advertising Agency and the American Advertising Federation told the FCC.
“The petition is based on the false premise that any animated characters with ties to products inherently constitute advertising and that their presentation in children’s programming automatically violate FCC commercial limits.”
The ad groups suggested the contention conflicts with history, citing characters from Peter Pan to the Smurfs that have appeared in advertising as well as TV shows.
“Any attempt to separate popular fiction from the commercial world is both Quixotic and damaging to the creative process,” said the ad groups.
The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood petitioned the FCC last month, accusing Nickelodeon and Skechers of engaging in “excessive commercialism.”
The Campaign claimed that the appearance of the characters in the program meant that the program would exceed the limits on commercials in children programming imposed by the FCC and by federal law and might also violate “host selling” rules.
The Children’s Television Act and FCC rules say that children’s programming on cable can only contain 10.5 minutes of ads per hour on weekdays or 12 minutes per hour on weekends. The host selling rules prevent program hosts from also appearing in ads either during the shows or immediately before or after a show featuring the host.
The FCC has received more than 1,500 comments about the petition with all but the ad groups comments supporting the Campaign’s position.
“I urge you to stop Nicktoon’s Zevo-3 from airing,” said one comment from a man identified only as Walter C. Pearson. “Please do not succumb to the pressures of the money and power brought by some sponsors.”
The ad groups also told the FCC that a ruling in favor of the consumer group could quickly lead to a slippery slope in which the FCC had to “enmesh” itself in “unresolvable content based determinations” about children’s shows, assessments the ad groups claimed would violate the First Amendment.
“The approach CCFC proposes would require the commission to examine the particular content and narrative structure of children’s shows and the evolution and timing of program related products to determine how the rules apply to any given program. … Not only is such an approach needlessly intrusive, it is unworkable.”
