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PepsiCo attacked for exploiting ads



Subject: PepsiCo attacked for exploiting ads, FTC alaerted

Headline: PepsiCo hits the  Net, and exploits kids, as media report alerts 
FTC government regulators
Keywords: PepsiCo, Advertising, Internet, Web of Deception, FTC, Center for 
Media Education 
Date: March 29  1996 


PepsiCo hits the  Net, and exploits kids, as media report alerts FTC 
government regulators

WASHINGTON (UVI) - If PepsiCo gets its way, kids will no longer have a mind 
of their own, and part of the $67 billion spent annual in the United States 
by children will go more quickly into the PepsiCo coffersas advertisers and 
marketers exploit  them in cyberspac. A highly volatile report says that 
PepsiCo and other companies are manipulating the minds and lifestyles of  
children and violating their privacy. And the report has attracted a lot of 
attention at the Federal Trade Commission.

The study, issued by the Center for Media Education, urged the FTC to develop 
safeguards for children
saying that marketers selling children's products are using a variety of 
techniques on computer
online services and the Internet to collect detailed data and  used to build 
individual profiles on kids.

« Never before has there been a medium with this kind of power to invade the 
privacy of children and families » said  Kathryn Montgomery, president of 
CME, an advocacy group.The study  also said nearly 1 million children in the 
United States use the Web, and that 3.8 million have access  to the Web. 

The report, « Web of Deception » targets  firms creating « manipulative 
infomercials » for kids. Advertising « environments » have been built to 
entice kids to play with product,  « spokescharacters »; such as Kellogg's 
Tony the Tiger and Frito Lay's Chester Cheetah, the study said. « Some of 
these practices would be clear violations of existing safeguards designed to 
protect children in other media such as broadcast and cable TV » said 
Montgomery.

The FTC will look at the report.« Allegations about unfair or deceptive 
marketing to children are the types of allegations we take  seriously » , 
said Lee Peeler of the FTC.  Advertisers have hired cultural anthropologists, 
psychologists,and others to study how kids' developmental needs can be « 
exploited » online, said the study.

The group, along with officials from other education, consumer and 
health-advocacy groups, called on the FTC and online « content providers » to 
develop safeguards. The study urged that firms be barred from collecting 
personal data about kids; ads and promotions targeted at children be clearly 
labeled; direct interaction between children and « spokescharacters » be 
prohibited.

The report said kids are being offered free gifts like T-shirts and chances 
to win prizes in exchange for filling out surveys that detail their e-mail 
address, home address, sex and other  personal information.

Tracking technology makes it possible to monitor every interaction between a 
child and an advertisement, allowing firms to create personalized ads for a 
child, said the study. But Frito Lay, the PepsiCo division, quickly countered 
that it was not trying to pitch products. « Our involvement on the Frito Lay 
Web site is good clean fun and decidedly no sell. It's entertainment-oriented 
» said Frito Lay's Tod MacKenzie.

 « Getting on the Internet is entirely voluntary. And you have to choose to 
go to a certain Web site », MacKenzie declared. That translates into 
selective self-abuse, but hell, do kids no any better, mocks the PepsiCo ad 
experts? Companies like PepsiCo tell them what to think and its only up to 
them to choose whether they want to think or not. Or is it anylonger a choice 
at all. PepsiCo prefers not to wade in those waters.

Said Karen Kafer of Kellogg, « We're confident that the information provided 
on our (Internet) home page is consistent with existing children's 
advertising guidelines ». The Children's Advertising Review Unit, a 
self-regulatory body for advertisers, has a task force studying whether to 
change its kids' advertising guidelines for the Internet.

(*This story has been written by UVI with information sourced from Reuters.)