Ratings still fit at 40
September 17, 2008

The Motion Picture Assn. of America movie ratings system turns 40 on Nov. 1, and the anniversary presents a great opportunity for retailers to refresh their appreciation—and that of their employees and customers—of this valuable tool for parents.

It was 1968 when Jack Valenti, then still relatively new to the MPAA, devised the voluntary ratings system as a challenge to the onerous Hays Code. Valenti’s ratings system is still in place, with some changes, (the PG-13 rating was added in the ’80s, for instance) and has spawned similar classifications for TV programming and videogames.

Together these ratings systems are highly effective—and under­used—tools for retailers. They can help you merchandise titles and develop recommendations for parents.

Their use shows that your store shares the values of your family customers. It’s not that certain ratings make movies good or bad, but being informed about ratings and making that information easily available to customers shows that you support parents’ right to make informed choices for their families.

And, of course, vigilant, voluntary enforcement of all the ratings takes the teeth out of some lawmakers’ efforts to make enforcement compulsory.

The Entertainment Merchants Assn. and allied trade organizations are kept busy fighting bills on all levels of government that seek to legislate the content and distribution of videogames alone.

Despite all these reasons to apply the ratings system in stores, the Federal Trade Commission’s most recent mystery shop, in 2007, showed that kids younger than 17 years old were able to buy R-rated movies about half the time. That’s a great improvement since the FTC started checking stores in 2000, but not good enough.

Get on the ratings bandwagon.

I remember my parents inquiring about the rating of American Graffiti when I wanted to see it at about 9 years old. (It was PG.)

And the other day, when my 9-year-old son wanted to watch the popular Cartoon Network show Total Drama Island, my first question was, “What’s it rated?” (It’s TV-PG-D for mildly flirtatious dialog.)

Posted by Marcy Magiera on September 17, 2008 | Comments (0)