CARU and ASRC Make an Appearance at the 37th BAA Conference

CARU attended the Brand Activation Association's (BAA, which is a division of the ANA) 37th Marketing Conference this year in Chicago. There were two days of inspiring and thought-provoking panels from senior lawyers and marketers all about promotional marketing. There were over 750 people in attendance composed of the nation's leading regulators, lawyers, marketers and technology innovators.

Ron Urbach's Epic Annual Address

This year's conference was entitled, "Walking the Line: Between Innovation and Regulation." Panels featured heavy hitters in the industry like Loeb & Loeb's Ken Florin focusing on social and digital media, and Ronald Urbach, Chairman, of Davis & Gilbert offering a look at the interplay of marketing and advertising to activate brands. There were two keynote addresses: one on the future Federal Trade Commission policy and enforcement by Daniel Kaufman, Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, FTC and another called Crossing the Line: Conflicts between Creative and Legal from Sony Pictures Entertainment's George Leon and Eric Baum. Amy Mudge of Venable and Mary Engle (along with several other FTC guest appearances) discussed how to defend against actual and potential regulatory investigations.

Jeff Greenbaum, Martin Zwerling and Leslie Fair

And the Advertising Self-Regulatory Review Council (ASRC) had a major presence as well. Rebecca Griffith (along with John Feldman at Reed Smith) spoke the first day of the conference about consumer reviews. Martin Zwerling (along with Jefrrey Greenbaum, Managing Partner, Frankfurt Kurnit; and Leslie Fair, Senior Attorney Bureau of Consumer Protection, FTC) gave an in-depth review of 2015's key advertising law developments. Katie Goldstein from the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) spoke with co-moderators Allison Fitzpatrick of Davis & Gilbert and Barry Benjamin at Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton, about issues pertaining to children's advertising. And Lee Peeler closed out the conference with a discussion about mobile marketing developments with Marc Roth of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

Barry Benjamin, Katie Goldstein, Allison Fitzpatrick and Joe Sena

Make sure you're following us on Twitter. We are often live-tweeting fun and interesting tidbits from the events we attend.

CARU Speaks at Community Board in Manhattan

CARU staff attorney Andra Dallas gave a presentation to Community Board 1, serving lower Manhattan on Monday, December 7 th . Andra spoke to the Board’s Youth Committee about the importance of teaching children about understanding advertising and safe online practices. District Manager Noah Pfefferblit remarked, “thank you for your informative presentation to our Youth Committee members,” and offered the Board’s assistance if they “can be helpful to the important efforts at the Children's Advertising Review Unit.” Are you interested in having a CARU staff member visit your community board? Contact adallas@caru.bbb.org.

i-Dressup Shuts Down in Wake of Privacy Breach and COPPA Violation

I-Dressup, a fashion-themed social website for teens, has completely shut down as part of a settlement with the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs, following a massive privacy breach and violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and New Jersey state law. In September 2016, a hacker sent 2.2 million i-Dressup account credentials to technology blog Arstechnica as well as to haveibeenpwned.com, a searchable online database of data breaches. Responding to the news, New Jersey investigators discovered that 2,519 of the compromised accounts belonged to New Jersey children below age 13. I-Dressup, allegedly aware that it had child users, had violated COPPA by failing to obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting and processing personal information from the children, including first and last names and email addresses. In a consent decree with the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Gerwal, parent company...

Advocates believe Kid Influencers Deserve Same Protections as Other Child Stars

Although there are child labor laws in California that are designed to protect child stars from exploitation (The Coogan Act), the same protections don't always apply to child YouTube and Instagram stars, or kid influencers. Kid Influencers accounts are usually run by their parents since platforms like YouTube and Instagram have age limits of 13 years old. One consequence of not owning their accounts is that all profits received go directly to the guardians and, unlike traditional child actors in California, these guardians are not required to set aside some of the profits for the children. Advocates like Paul Petersen, believe the legal protections like those in California should apply to children outside of the state. Petersen has said that because YouTube is in San Bruno, California and they are paying to broadcast children, California law must apply to those child stars. Many guardians of kid influencers feel these regulations are unnecessary and that the guardians are doi...

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