CARU Names New Director

Council of Better Business Bureaus’ National Advertising Division’s Keeley Joins Children's Advertising Review Unit

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/5/2007 1:28:00 PM

The Council of Better Business Bureaus named a new director of its Children's Advertising Review Unit, which oversees industry self-regulation of kids’ advertising.

Wayne Keeley, who has been assistant director for development of the BBB's other investigative arm, the National Advertising Division, replaces Phyllis Spaeth, assistant director of the unit, who had been serving as acting director since the departure of director Elizabeth Lascoutx at the end of May to join a New York law firm.

Children's-advertising regulation -- and self-regulation -- has become a front-burner issue with the rise of childhood obesity and government efforts to trim the fat from kids’ snack-food marketers.

CARU drew praise from the FTC in January for steps to toughen enforcement of the "blurring" of lines between advertising and editorial -- part of a concerted effort by the ad industry to tackle the obesity issue and to ward off government regulation.

The Federal Communications Commission, as well, has been increasingly fining TV stations for kids’ ads that run afoul of its restrictions, while a government-industry task force has yet to report back to Congress with its advice on how to better self-regulate ads to children.