Shocking revelations about movie marketers

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No, we’re not really shocked. Or surprised. According to a story in Broadcasting and Cable magazine, Paramount has been airing ads for ‘Iron Man’ and other PG-13 films during Nickelodeon shows targeted toward kids under-12. (You can take a wild guess about who owns Nickelodeon, the right guess being Viacom, which also owns Paramount.) The Better Business Bureau blew the whistle on the studio, passing the ads along to the MPAA, which is supposed to oversee studio marketing practices, but largely acts like a paper tiger, except in the months following well-publicized Congressional investigations into movie marketing practices. The BBB’s advertising review unit also referred another Paramount film, ‘Drillbit Taylor,’ to the MPAA for similar offenses, noting that the promos had aired during such kid-friendly Nickelodeon shows as ‘Zoey 101’’ and ‘Drake and Josh.’

Does Paramount have any qualms about showing ads on shows that pre-schoolers regularly watch? Or this just an example of the Better Business Bureau trying to get some publicity for itself, using an easy target--a Hollywood studio--to attract some media attention?

I called up Gerry Rich, Paramount’s marketing guru, to get his side of the story. He says the studio has erred on the side of caution. ‘’We’re very careful. We’re more restrictive with what we do than the networks’ own guidelines. ‘’ The studio is only running its ads on Nickelodeon after 5 p.m., and restricting ad buys on Cartoon Network after 7 p.m., when the ads would reach more of a teenage audience. As it turns out, a show like ‘’Zoey 101’’ has a large female teen following.

‘’We’re very mindful of our responsibility to target a teen audience for a PG-13 film,’’ he adds. ‘’If this were ‘Kung Fu Panda,’ we’d be buying the network’s entire line-up. But for a film like ‘Iron Man,’ we’ve waited until after 5 p.m., when the audience demographics get older.’’