Pubdate: Tue, 17 Apr 2012
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Patrick Goldstein

MPAA'S HAZY VIEW ON POT USE

As we all know from the recent controversy over the initial R rating 
for the documentary "Bully," the Motion Picture Assn. of America 
finds bad language very scary. It is almost entirely unperturbed by 
extreme violence, which is why so many movies, most notably "The Dark 
Knight," can still receive a PG-13.

But when it comes to drugs, the MPAA apparently isn't sure what it 
thinks anymore. It seems especially confused about what kind of drug 
use can be depicted in movie trailers, the primary means studios have 
of luring young people to see their films.

Let's go to Exhibit A: the new trailers for "Ted," an upcoming 
R-rated comedy from "Family Guy" creator Seth Macfarlane. For the 
last couple of weeks, the Internet has been abuzz over one uproarious 
trailer for the Universal Pictures film, which chronicles the wacky 
co-dependent friendship between Mark Wahlberg's John and Ted, a 
foulmouthed, sex-obsessed talking teddy bear.

The trailer is a so-called "red-band" trailer, which can be crammed 
with foul language and crude sexual humor. Because of restrictions 
imposed by the MPAA advertising administration wing, headed by 
Marilyn Gordon, it's almost impossible to see red-band trailers in 
theaters, although they are widely available on innumerable websites. 
Green-band trailers, in contrast, are generally scrubbed of most 
offensive content and made available either for "all audiences" or 
"appropriate audiences," the latter being audiences in theaters that 
don't contain a significant proportion of children.

In recent years red-band trailers have flourished on the Internet, 
where they are a prized marketing weapon for studios eager to impress 
kids by showing just how much raunchy sex, drugs or naughty language 
is in their R-rated comedies. One of "Ted's" red-band trailers on 
Youtube has been viewed 4.3 million times.

Youtube is a favorite pit stop for my 13-year-old son and his pals to 
watch movie trailers. The red-band "Ted" trailer is almost gleefully 
explicit, showing Ted unleashing a volley of Fbombs, simulating a sex 
act with a supermarket checkout counter scanner, joking about anal 
sex and, oh yes, taking a big hit from a bong full of pot.

The trailer is clearly R-rated and approved for viewing only by 
"mature audiences," a warning that obviously is not especially 
effective in the age of ubiquitous Internet access. But what has 
really raised eyebrows among movie marketers is the green-band 
trailer for "Ted," which is available all across the Web and is 
supposed to have far less explicit content.

The green-band trailer for "Ted," which is approved for "appropriate 
audiences," is missing most of the redband trailer's explicit humor. 
But here's the eyepopper:

We still see Ted, sitting on a couch next to Wahlberg's character, 
smoking a bong. The shot has been edited so that we don't see him 
inhaling. But we do see Ted taking the bong out of his mouth, tamping 
his hand over the top, and exhaling a cloud of what is obviously pot 
smoke. As one rival marketer put it: "I'm shocked, and I mean 
shocked, by how they got away with that."

Let me be clear, as a "Family Guy" fan: the "Ted" trailers are very 
funny. They're also shrewd marketing, since they convey to "Family 
Guy" fans that "Ted" offers Macfarlane the freedom to push the comic 
envelope further than he's been allowed to on commercial TV. But as a 
parent, I'm troubled by this new inconsistency in the often 
impenetrable MPAA ratings system.

Until now, pot references were clearly verboten in green-band 
trailers aimed at what is known as "appropriate audiences." The 
MPAA'S own advertising guidebook says that greenband trailers "shall 
not include excessive or graphic images of violence or sex, excessive 
profanity, or drug usage."

The current red-band trailer for Adam Sandler's upcoming "That's My 
Boy," for example, depicts Sandler taking a hit from a bong in a 
strip club; the scene is not in the green-band trailer. In the 
red-band trailer for 2008's "Pineapple Express," Seth Rogen is 
smoking a joint, exclaiming, "That is good weed!" In the green-band 
trailer, he coughs up a puff of smoke, but no joint is in sight.

Nancy Meyers' 2009 film, "It's Complicated," earned an R rating 
solely for a scene in which Steve Martin and Meryl Streep smoke pot 
in the bushes at a party; to show a snippet from the scene in its 
green-band trailer, Universal had to digitally remove the joint, 
leaving us to wonder exactly why Martin was holding his arm in the 
air with such a curious smile on his face.

So why has the MPAA allowed Universal to show a bong full of pot in 
its "Ted" trailer while making everyone else cut out their weed 
references? MPAA press reps said Gordon wasn't willing to talk. No 
one at Universal would speak on the record either. The same goes for 
marketers at rival studios, who don't want to cause problems with the MPAA.

Marketers complained to me that there are so many inconsistencies in 
the MPAA ad policies that it's almost impossible to tell whether the 
bong joke represents an actual change in enforcement, a simple 
blunder or an experiment to see whether it draws complaints from 
anti-drug activists. Universal insiders say the MPAA approved the 
green-band "Ted" trailer to run in theaters only in front of two 
R-rated comedies, the studio's own "American Reunion" and Paramount 
Pictures' upcoming Sacha Baron Cohen film, "The Dictator." It has not 
been shown in front of any PG-13 films.

But on the Internet, it's everywhere. As a parent, I want to know 
where the MPAA stands. When you have a 13-year-old who's in a school 
with a zero-tolerance policy for drug use but lives in a pop culture 
where drugs are routinely embraced and celebrated, you'd hope that 
the MPAA would act as a sensible traffic cop. But as matters stand 
now, there is zero transparency to MPAA dictums. And when the people 
who run the ratings system refuse to explain how and why they've made 
key decisions, it's the parents who end up having to police things.

I know the MPAA is between a rock and a hard place.

After all, America itself is full of ambivalence about the war on 
drugs, with President Obama saying he's against legalization and 
evangelist Pat Robertson in favor of marijuana decriminalization. But 
when it comes to advertising messages fit for kids, the MPAA seems so 
foggy and befuddled that you almost wonder if, well, it has been indulging.

If the MPAA has a new set of rules, it's time to share them with all 
of us puzzled parents. Seth Macfarlane is getting a lot of laughs 
from his pot-smoking teddy bear, but if the MPAA thinks that 
13-year-olds are an "appropriate audience" for a bong gag, I'd like to know why.
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