November 14th, 2003
Industry Fights Back On Product Placement
By Bill Carter
The New York Times
A coalition of advertising organizations is lashing back at Commercial Alert, an advocacy group that last month called the practice of product placement “an affront to basic honesty” and demanded new government regulations like advisories superimposed on screen during television programs that display products in exchange for payments. In letters to the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, the Freedom to Advertise Coalition in Washington argued against the demands by Commercial Alert, which the coalition said “border on the ludicrous” and would make television “virtually unwatchable.”