Last year, Ant-Man was one of the biggest movies and with that comes lots of advertising.  In September 2015, CARU investigated some of the television advertising for Ant-Man that occurred during episodes of Spongebob Squarepants on Nickelodeon.  CARU’s main concern was the age group targeted by airing this advertisement during a midafternoon showing.  In the agreement between the MPAA and CARU it states, “Under the terms of a referral agreement entered into with the MPAA, if CARU finds an advertisement for a film rated PG-13, R or NC-17 in any medium primarily directed to children under 12…” (CARU Refers Broadcast Advertising for PG-13-Rated ‘Ant-Man’ to MPAA for Further Review, 2015).

CARU sent this back to the MPAA for further investigation.  The MPAA responded by saying that Spongebob Squarepants has an older-skewed audience and that the advertisement shown did not involve much violence. The MPAA decided no further action was needed.

This plays into the professional culture of advertising well (Christians, Fackler, Richardson, Kreshel, Woods, 2012).  As professionals, the agreements made need to be kept between organizations and all codes of ethics should be followed.  Both of those happened in the case, as the agreement was still in tact because of the older-skewed audience the MPAA cited. (CARU Refers Broadcast Advertising for PG-13-Rated ‘Ant-Man’ to MPAA for Further Review)

The advertisement that was chosen to air did not involve as much violence as some others aimed at the older audiences.  The advertisers did well to go about their work in the correct way to create advertisements that suited all target demographics and did not cross any lines. (Christians, et. al., 2012).

The clients got their advertising done in a tasteful way that respected the audiences so the public could not be mad about children seeing intense violence while watching TV. (Christians, et. al., 2012).

Reference List

CARU Refers Broadcast Advertising for PG-13-Rated ‘Ant-Man’ to MPAA for Further Review. (2015, September 10). Retrieved March 03, 2016, from http://www.asrcreviews.org/caru-refers-broadcast-advertising-for-pg-13-rated-ant-man-to-mpaa-for-further-review/

Christians, C. G., Fackler, M., Richardson, K. B., Kreshel, P. J., & Woods, R. H., Jr. (2012). Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning. New York: Allyn & Bacon.