New York, NY - October 28, 2004. The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) is pleased to announce that the Hammer Corporation (Hammer) has modified Tootarts.com, the Website for its Too Tarts candy lines to protect the privacy of children on its site and to inform children that the site is an advertisement for the candies. The Website, which contains cartoon depictions, and offers several games for children, is a mixed audience site, attractive to both children and adults.

CARU, which monitors Websites for compliance with CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (the Guidelines) as well as with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), had found that children under age 13 who registered for various activities on the site were asked to disclose personally identifiable information including first and last name, mailing address, email address and telephone number, without prior parental consent or notice to parents, in violation of the Guidelines and COPPA.

Further, the site, which offers for sale the Too Tarts lines of candy, features Too Tarts products and characters throughout the site, including the games for children, failed to identify the site as "Advertising" to children in violation of the Guidelines requirement that in product-driven Websites, such as tootarts.com, "advertising content should ... be clearly identified as such."

When contacted by CARU, Hammer worked cooperatively with CARU and immediately agreed to make the requested changes. The advertiser stated that it appreciates the cooperation and assistance of CARU in this matter, and all necessary changes have been made to the Website.

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 at elascoutx@caru.bbb.org

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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.