Hostilities in evidence between PTC, MTV

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The Parents Television Council is again asking advertisers to think twice before buying time on certain MTV programs. The program is “The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” and MTC says a co-creator of the program used Twitter to dedicate a particularly objectionable scene to PTC.


Advertisers being targeted by the PTC campaign include Burger King and Taco Bell in particular, and all advertisers in the program in general.

PTC President Tim Winter described the scene that has his organization up in arms. “This week MTV’s ‘RJ Berger’ treated viewers to a vile scene in which menstrual blood drips on the face of a male character as he holds a classmate above his head and looks up her skirt. No restaurant on the planet should want to associate its menu items with crotch shoots and menstrual blood. The PTC is urging members to contact the show’s advertisers, especially Burger King and Taco Bell, to hold the companies accountable for their decision to underwrite such nauseating content.”

PTC said the Tweet from Seth Grahame-Smith that mentioned the organization also promoted the episode as “the most tasteless, disgusting moment in TV history.”

Winter noted that content that might be “dangerous to teens” is standard fare on the program. ”We hope that advertisers will stand with parents and families and choose to support programs that match their corporate values,” he concluded.

RBR-TVBR observation: We strongly and consistently defend the First Amendment, but that doesn’t mean we like the way some choose to use it. As we’ve said many times, we generally don’t like it when PTC directly attacks content, but we have no objection whatsoever when PTC tries to put enough heat on advertisers to make them think twice about what they are sponsoring.