Just days before Lorenzo di Bonaventura's movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is set to debut nationwide, a parent advocacy group has stepped forward to ask that the movie industry stop targeting children in ad campaigns.
The group, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), reportedly sent a petition to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) citing thousands of instances of violent advertisements for PG-13 movies during children's programming.
G.I. Joe is not the only movie mentioned in the petition, however. Other films that CCFC claims have been advertised to children under thirteen years old include Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, all of this summer's biggest blockbusters. Diane Levin of CCFC said in a statement:
It makes it harder for parents to deny requests to see the film when children are subjected to a steady stream of ads telling them that that products linked to the film are especially for them.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is directed by Stephen Sommers and stars Dennis Quaid as Hawk, Channing Tatum as Duke, Sienna Miller as Baroness, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander.