German Youth Media Protection Watchdogs Look Into Ringtone Advertising

The uprising against advertisments of ringtones has moved into Germany, with the Commission for Youth Media Protection (KJM) investigating advertising for ringtones on TV. Their are two main complaints: “TV ring tone advertising is allowed to take up twelve minutes of every hour; in the case of the music channel Viva, however, on a day in February that figure is said to have reached 18 minutes twice”. Also, KJM is objecting to the phrase “Go get you that drunk moose” — The Youth Media Services State Treaty bans TV spots that contain “direct appeals to buy directed at children or adolescents that exploit their inexperience and gullibility.”
There will also be discussions about hidden costs. “In the run-up to their investigations the youth media protection watchdogs had reacted unfavorably to difficult to read written insertions and obscure price lists in ring tone TV spots, the newspaper claims. Even grown-ups, the paper quotes a KJM member as saying, could scarcely gauge the size of the follow-up costs involved in sending “an SMS with the Text Frog 1″ to a five-digit telephone number.”
Whether this will result in lawsuits against the companies involved as it has in the US remains to be seen…there’s also a question of will. Despite aggressive denunciations of the way Jamster conducts its business, the recent Crazy Frog single went to the top of the charts
Related stories:
Mobile Content Industry Joins In Criticism Of Jamster Model
Did Jamster Kill Ringtones?
Aussie Firms Face Heavy Fines On ‘Misleading’ Mobile Info

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