New York, NY - September 9, 2004. The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) is pleased to announce that it has begun a program to monitor advertising to children in Spanish-language media. This program is funded by the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA). As advertisers are expanding their appeal to the Spanish-speaking audience, both CARU and GMA believe it is important to insure that advertising to Spanish-speaking children is in compliance with CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (the Guidelines).

According to the Census Bureau, Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the country. National Advertising Review Council (NARC) President and CEO James Guthrie stated,

"We are pleased that CARU can now extend the vital guidance it provides children's advertisers to this growing market. Thanks to GMA, self-regulation can protect a wider group of children, many of whom experience media in the Spanish language."

CARU is recognized as the primary self-regulatory body with a success rate of over 95% in resolving issues regarding advertising to children. In fact, CARU has received high praise from the Federal Trade Commission, whose Deputy Director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, C. Lee Peeler, has stated

"As an advertising law enforcement official, I have always found it remarkable that, in the name of self-regulation, major national advertisers would voluntarily modify or discontinue their advertising to meet CARU's standards that sometimes go beyond existing law. CARU's twenty-five years of success demonstrates a sustained commitment to effective self-regulation." (October 2001)

Recently, NARC published a White Paper to provide leadership in advertising self-regulation and to increase the understanding of the role of self-regulation of food advertising. It includes a section on current developments that synthesizes the Principles, Guidelines and decisions of the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) that are related to food advertising to children. The White Paper, published in June 2004, can be found on the CARU Website (www.caru.org).

CARU reviews and evaluates advertising claims for truth and accuracy, and compliance with CARU's Guidelines, which, because of children's developing cognitive abilities, set standards that are higher than the law requires, helping to ensure that commercials or advertisements directed to children also contain responsible and positive social messages.

CARU has traditionally systematically monitored only English-language advertisements directed to children. Now, with its new capability, CARU will be conducting the same systematic monitoring in Spanish-language media.

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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.