A watchdog group on Tuesday asked the Motion Picture Association of America to investigate whether Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox broke industry guidelines governing the advertising of two PG-13 films during television programming aimed at young children.
The Children’s Advertising Review Unit, a division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus that works as a type of self-regulator for the advertising business, said ads for “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (Disney) and “X-Men: First Class” (Fox) appeared inappropriately in recent months on channels like Nickelodeon.
A spokesman for Fox said the ads in question were pre-approved by the Motion Picture Association for the time slot. Disney also said it believed it was in compliance with industry guidelines.