New York, September 12, 2002 – The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc. is pleased to announce that Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company (Wrigley) has agreed to make changes in its information collection practices at a company Website, juicyfruit.com, to come into compliance with CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (the Guidelines) and the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Wrigley also agreed to address CARU's concerns with respect to the airing of a specific Juicy Fruit commercial during children's programming.

When CARU first visited the Website, juicyfruit.com, it discovered that the site did ask for one's age in a neutral manner during the registration process for an email newsletter. However, when a preteen would be rejected for submitting an age younger than 13, there was no mechanism in place to stop that individual from hitting the back button, changing his age, and successfully signing up. In addition, the site's privacy policy failed to incorporate all of the provisions required under COPPA, including putting parents on notice of their rights with respect to a company's use of their children's information, and contained what appeared to be unrelated or confusing material.

Wrigley agreed to implement the use of a tracking mechanism to prevent children younger than 13 from circumventing the registration process and also agreed to revise its Website to ensure that it is compliant with all requirements of COPPA.

The Juicy Fruit commercial, entitled "Caring and Sharing," is a spoof of a "Barney"-like young children's television show. CARU had concerns as to whether children would grasp the humor of the spot and that they would take away the wrong message. Although Wrigley disagreed with CARU's assessment, it did commit to stop running the commercial during children's programming.

CARU's inquiry was conducted under NAD/NARB/CARU Procedures for Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising. Details of the inquiry, CARU's decision and the advertiser's response will be included in the next NAD/CARU Case Report.

Members of the press who wish to see a copy of the decision now should email CARU.

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The National Advertising Review Council (NARC) was formed in 1971 by the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Inc. (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation, Inc. (AAF), and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB). Its purpose is to foster truth and accuracy in national advertising through voluntary self-regulation. NARC is the body that establishes the policies and procedures for the CBBB's National Advertising Division (NAD), the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), and the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).

NAD and CARU are the investigative arms of the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation program. Their casework results from competitive challenges from other advertisers, and also from self-monitoring traditional and new media, including the Internet. The National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the appeals body, is a peer group from which ad-hoc panels are selected to adjudicate those cases that are not resolved at the NAD/CARU level. This unique, self-regulatory system is funded entirely by the business community; CARU is financed by the children's advertising industry, while NAD/NARB's sole source of funding is derived from membership fees paid to the Council of Better Business Bureaus.