Riaa To Cooperate With U.s. Probe Of Entertainment Biz Marketing Tactics

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Despite a vitriolic reaction to President Clinton's June 1 announcement of a federal probe into the entertainment industry's marketing practices, the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) says it will cooperate with the government.
The president has asked the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to probe the marketing of violent content in movies, music, and video games that are aimed at children (BillboardBulletin, June 2).
Pam Horovitz, president of the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers, says that the retail group will also encourage its members to cooperate with the investigation. But she adds, "We don't believe that retailers market product with violent content to children."
Representatives of the five major U.S. record companies either had no comment or directed questions about the probe to the RIAA.
The investigation will encompass the five major record companies, the seven major Hollywood studios, and the major video game manufacturers. According to Hilary Rosen, president/CEO of the RIAA, the probe could extend to "marketing companies and advertising agencies and publicity firms and retailers. There are a lot of places to go here."
Rosen responded angrily to the announcement of the probe in a prepared statement released June 1 in which she said that U.S. record companies "will continue playing a leadership role in the countless initiatives that provide real help to children and families to tackle violence and other critical issues, while the president apparently looks for headlines."
In a June 2 interview with Billboard, Rosen stood behind her comment. "What the White House did for a one-day headline was to bog our industry down with a year's worth of hassle," she says.
She says that "the music industry does not market violence to children. We market artists. And I think there's a big difference."
The probe is expected to take 18 months. According to the president's directive, it will investigate "whether and how the video game, motion picture, and recording industries market to children violent and other material rated for adults."
FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky said the agency will have subpoena power to examine internal marketing documents and records, much as it did in the "Joe Camel" investigation of tobacco companies.
Pitofsky, who was on hand at the announcement along with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno, says that his agency wanted to look at the entertainment industry practices separately because of the in-place voluntary ratings systems.
While the results of the probe won't initiate criminal prosecutions, "the methods they are using will be similar," Rosen says. "They will use subpoena threats and the power of the FTC to look at what they want to look at."
The federal budget for the investigation is $1 million.
"God knows what we're going to have to spend," says Rosen.
Observers say Clinton "borrowed" the idea of an entertainment industry probe from the Omnibus Violence in Culture and Media Act, which was introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and was included in the Senate's giant juvenile-justice bill. The bill was passed by the Senate May 20 and is now awaiting action in the House (Billboard, June 5).
Also included in the Senate bill is a provision introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., calling for an investigation of the gun companies' marketing practices. Following news of Clinton's order of an entertainment industry probe, Sen. Boxer released copies of a letter that she wrote to the president saying that singling out the entertainment industry was unfair.
"For some reason," she wrote, "you directed your study only toward the entertainment industry and did not include the gun industry. This omission is disturbing to me and all those who do not want to scapegoat one industry but want a comprehensive analysis of the causes of youth violence."