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When money
talks, Hollywood listens. No TV show gets made without sponsors
bankrolling it. And when consumers talk, sponsors listen. They’re in
business to make money, after all; and if customers aren’t happy,
they won’t buy the sponsor’s products.
So
consumers — average, everyday Americans who buy products —
ultimately have the power to make Hollywood listen…if they know how
to exercise it.
That’s
where the PTC comes in.
The PTC
brings the public’s concerns about media content to the corporations
that sponsor entertainment. Through letters, e-mails and personal
meetings, the PTC urges advertisers to support family-friendly
entertainment.
The PTC
also buys stock in some of America’s largest corporations, so that
we can publicly confront
their
officers about their bad choices at shareholder meetings. The
result? Companies who want to stay on the good side of American
parents and families have learned that the programming they choose
to sponsor does matter to Americans!
The PTC
scored tremendous successes in 2008. In addition to victories over
sleazy programs like
Swingtown, Dexter, 90210
and
Dirt,
and success in encouraging airlines to stop showing adult material
as part of their in-flight entertainment, PTC activism also resulted
in literally dozens of sponsors shifting ad dollars away from
graphic content in programs like CBS’
Two and a Half Men;
Fox’s
Family Guy
and
American Dad;
BBC America’s sex-and-drug-soaked teen soap
Skins;
and the headline-grabbing CW teen show
Gossip Girl.
The PTC has
also been successful in working with private industry to proactively
improve America’s
entertainment culture. In 2008, the PTC began fruitful conversations
with Eli Lilly, makers of the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, to
alter their commercials so as to eliminate explicit language
describing the drug’s side-effects. So engaged and willing was Eli
Lilly to work with the PTC that senior executives personally visited
the PTC’s offices in July to discuss tactics. Since then, Eli Lilly
has cooperated with the PTC by making a schedule of their upcoming
commercials available to the PTC website, so parents can safely
navigate around them when watching TV with their children.
For
more information visit our Advertiser Accountability campaign page.
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