CARU West Coast Conference to Address the Challenges of Advertising to Children in Different Media

March 29, 2011 | The Children’s Advertising and Review Unit (CARU) will host its 2011 Children’s Advertising and Online Privacy Summit at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, CA, on Wednesday, May 18th. The one-day event will examine domestic and global challenges to self-regulation in the areas of virtual worlds and social networking, mobile marketing, and food and beverage advertising, as well as various state and federal regulatory aspects and perspectives of advertising to children in different types of media.

CARU is the children's arm of the advertising industry's self-regulation program and evaluates child-directed advertising and promotional material in all media to advance truthfulness, accuracy and consistency with its Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising and relevant laws.

“CARU’s self- regulatory program sets high standards for the industry to assure that advertising is appropriate for children,” explained Toy Industry Association (TIA) President Carter Keithley.  “TIA is a long-time CARU supporter and we are proud to promote their guidelines to all stakeholders in the toy industry.  The West Coast Conference will provide important new information regarding emerging guidelines related to the Internet and online privacy.”

Speakers at the Summit will shed light on children’s online behavior, hot button issues to consider when planning ad campaigns, socially responsible messaging to children, food marketing campaigns, sweepstakes and contests.  Also on the agenda will be a discussion of recent changes and enforcement actions to the FTC’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule, which was enacted in April 2000 and requires Web site operators to obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13.

Confirmed speakers include Alan Friel, Wildman Harrold Allen & Dixon LLP; Timothy Ernst, VP & Associate General Counsel, Del Monte Foods; Dr. J. Alison Bryant, President, PlayScience; Katie Harrington, McBride, FTC; Kate Connally, Games & Social Media Expert; and Lisa Manhart, EVP, Sales & Marketing, Ventura Associates, Inc.

TIA will be represented by Ed Desmond, executive vice president of external affairs, and Stacy Leistner, vice president of strategic communications.

Additional information about CARU can be found on the TIA website under the heading “The Toy Biz” and the subheading for “Responsible Marketing to Children.”

For more information about the conference, please visit the CARU event website or contact CARU’s Reshma Persaud (212.705.0113).