Transformers Caught in the Crossfire of the FCC Content Filtering Enquiry

In a recent article posted on arstechnica.com, Matthew Lasar reported that the Federal Communications Commission has submitted an inquiry to the public asking for feedback on how well parental blocking devices for television are working, sighting the Transformers films advertisements as a possible violation of said devices.

In a nutshell, the FCC is looking to enforce the rule that MPAA films rated PG-13 or above are not marketed towards children under 13 years of age, thanks to a response given by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood gave based on the inquiry "[to] the extent to which inappropriate commercials [are] aired in programming viewed by children and on possible solutions to this problem". In the report submitted by the FCC, both Transformers and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen were cited as examples on how such parental blocking devices such as the "V-Chip" weren't regulating such content and allowing children to view said commercials.

Congress has asked the FCC to supply them with a compendium of every content filtering device available. The FCC has until the end of this week, August 29th 2009, to supply the report.

You can read the article in its entirety here. Transformers movies caught in FCC content filtering inquiry - Ars Technica

Hold on, they're complaining about the commercials?! Jeez, the movie is kinda marketed TO that audience, what with everything blowing up and the giant robots, y'know...

If parents actually did their job and, you know, PARENT their kids, they wouldn't even need the V-chip.

I miss the days where if a kid got in trouble the kid got an ass-whoopin'. Nowadays if a kid does something wrong, they try to get rid of any company that supplies anything to kids that the parent isn't into themselves.

Well, whether we like this chip or not...let's hope it makes Bay think twice about including his type of humor into the TF movies.

Somewhere along the way, children in this country have moved toward becoming community property. I am not surprised that some group is deciding what is best for other peoples' children. The day is coming where your children won't even be yours!

Hmm, I wonder what the FCC says about plagerism.

They can block all the TV commercials they want. It'll make little difference.

Hasbro still has shelfloads of Cyberslammers and other ROTF merchandise aimed at three-year-olds. For a violent movie dripping with crude sexual innuendo. Good luck parents.

now where the heck is that family guy clip......

Proper parenting?

The FCC has no business making inquires into anything but radio signals. That said, I loathe commercials and ROTF is far too offensive for 5 year olds, so it's difficult for me to shed a tear.

The whole PG-13 thing is retarded stupid to begin with anyway. All you really need to do is have the R rating for ultra violent/profanity ridden movies and that's it. Better yet abolish the whole ratings system entirely, we all know its a big joke to begin with especially in the age of the internet and Bittorrent.

I could understand if they were talking about the movie itself, but there's nothing bad at all in the commercials.

well guys this is FCC we are talking about. What ever they think is inappropriate they are going to take it as a big deal

Let's just get rid of ratings altogether why don't we.


I saw a girl, couldn't be older than 6, at the theater once. We were watching the same movie.

It was Bruno.

I think that kinda says something about the state that the world is in, and how most parents don't really care anymore. I like to think that my parents did good with my brothers and I.

It could be worse. The FCC could begin censoring our posts here! That will never happen though, because the FCC is incredible stupid like that. Good thing they're hard to take seriously.

Parents need to learn to regulate what thier children watch... and learn to step up and be f-ing parents. Stop relying on anything other than YOU to govern what your children are doing.
My 9 year old is not allowed on the internet unsupervised for a reason.
Sick of the damn government sticking thier nose where it doesn't belong.

This just in from the FCC:

All future "Transformers" movies, should Hasbro wish to continue its marketing towards children, will have to be rated "G" or at the very most "PG". All in-movie character conflicts would be resolved by friendly negotiation, and when tension mounts, fighting will be done by shooting harmless projectiles that always miss. Optimus Prime will always defeat Megatron by knocking him off a cliff, but Megatron will land in a pillow factory and survive to disagree with the current moral and political standpoints of the Autobots another day.
Also, there will be a strict clothing requirement on female actors; only the skin of their hands and face may be shown at any time. There will be no words more harsh than "Oh darn" and anything remotely sexual (i.e. bananas or lighthouses, which are obviously phallic) will be right out. The only drug use will be restricted to taking cold medicine or an aspirin, and alcohol will be moderated drinking of wine during dinner.
The Decepticons will not be allowed to look in any way frightening, because then children might have nightmares or become fearful of every-day vehicles. Decepticons cannot have military vehicles alternate modes because war is bad.
All Transformer voice actors will be required to be Caucasian, American, and speak in their normal speaking voices. No Southern, Boston, New York, or any sort of foreign accents are allowed. Speech will be limited to proper English and the occasional vernacular; street slang, however, is forbidden as it is unbelievably and intentionally racist. Humor must follow the FCC guidelines that require family-friendly "knock-knock" jokes as well as pie-throwing and one slapstick moment per film.
These are the new FCC requirements for future "Transformers" movies if Hasbro, inc., wishes to continue to market toys that are based on these horrible, awful, violent, childhood-raping, mind-distorting, racist, swearingest, filthy movies.

- Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman

I once read a statement by a parent, simply saying he's too busy to watch his kids . . .

So we all suffer.

I don't think you guys are getting the point. This has nothing to do with parenting. It has to do with advertising. Rotf was made by a director who largely produces R rated movies. Rotf pushed the limits if Pg-13 with its violence, crude language, and sexual innuendo. So the question is why was it being advertised during kids programming?

I know this is an extreme example of the issue but there is something of a valid point in there. How would you feel if your kid was watching spongebob and a condom commercial came on or a girls gone wild video. Rotf is nowhere near as bad as those examples but they have a point. Commercials being aired during a program should be targeted to the same audience as the program. If Rotf was not intended for young kids then it shouldn't air during their programs.

As a theatre manager, I can tell you that a lot of parents DO rely on the rating system when making judgments about movies for their kids. When they see a PG-13, they'll ask me or other employees why it's PG-13. A lot of times, if they hear 'sexual humor,' they'll go ahead and pick something else.
Abolishing the rating system won't do any good. In the states at least, the rating system is voluntarily used b studios, because not having it would probably make the government step in and do more regulating.
I still don't get when parents take their parents to see a PG-13 movie with their 5 year old, and then complain about inappropriate content. "Well, yeah, I know it was PG-13, but blah blah blah."
In regards to marketing...yeah, I don't think ROTF should be on during kids programming targeted at kids younger than 10...but I didn't see any, that I can remember. I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old, who watch things like Phineas and Ferb, Spongebob Squarepants, and other kids programming, and don't recall seeing an ROTF spots.

This message board is rated I-12; safe for internet users 12 and over. The Fuzzy World is rated I-21.

Well said, MegaHavok.

From what I've seen in commercials is mostly bot on bot action. So, this might draw in kids and their parents to watch. But little do they expect that the film is full of R-rated humor and violence.

I think the FCC should just tell Michael Bay that if he's gonna make TF3 make it look like a PG 13 film with less type of his humor which will turn down the younger audience whom are the target audience that Hasbro uses to buy their toys.

See, if it was in the hands of Speilberg himself who directed cartoons like Animanics which had adult humor in a kids cartoon, he would have the movies kid and fan friendly .

honestly i was surprised when i saw the movie and then realized this tied in with a toy line aimed at kids. some of that stuff really shouldnt have been in a kids movie. yes it was pg-13, but there needs to be some kind of choice, either the movie is pg13 and they dont go after kids with the advertising, or make the movie more kid friendly and advertise towards kids.

I remember back in the days when action figure lines came out for movies we kids would NEVER get to see until the tv edit came out, or someone managed to wheedle their parents into renting the vhs.

Movies like Robocop, Aliens, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Terminator 2. We had no idea what had happened in the movie, but damned if we didn't want those toys.

I went with my sister and her family to see transformers 2. After the film was over, they were angry at the adult stuff in the movie. They said they refuse to buy the dvd and was real angry over the adult stuff. Did we really need that many curse words. Heck even wheelie curses!

No they are complaining, and have a good point, that Hasbro is marketing a toyline to 5 year old children for a movie that is questionable for a 13 year old.

For a second there, I actually believed it...until I read the part about childhood-raping..

Bring on a rated R Transformers movie! I wanna se sh*t getting blown the f*ck up! Robots getting murdered with blood spewing out of them despite them not having blood! Let everyone of them drop the F bomb! Bring it on!

I don't know how we could make this movie rated G or PG...Someone needs to do a quick edit of the movie shown as just a G or PG, it will last approximately 10 seconds, just enough to satisfy the FCC! Too much violence in this movie, and whatnot.

I would say, "SEE? If I was wearing one of those, I wouldn't have to be watching this stupid show right now!"

agreed, this is a good way to get Bay's attention, and realize his sex jokes don't belong in TF films.

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow! that is retarded transformers commercials are bad in no way the FCC is over reacting for the most gayest reasons. I liked it when they didn't have a pole shoved up there ass. The movie was not even that bad compared to bay's other movies.

Guys, guys, you're looking at the wrong guilty party:

The FCC are not the ones getting involved. They've been approached by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood to investigate the direction the film is being marketed in. The CCFC would have had a problem if there was no swearing or adult humour and minimal violence purely because they appear to be against commercialisation.


These would be the inheritors of the anti-toy line based on cartoon camp that long opposed cartoons based on toy lines because they did not want TV shows that served as little more than 20 minute toy commercials.


They're just voicing the concerns to the FCC. Don't go crying for blood at them, they're just guys doing their jobs here.

Well, the parents should of seen it before taking their kids to it. So they could of judged it. This day in age...there is so much stuff here considered offensive it is rediculous. I have watched Spongebob before...and there is a lot of stuff that could be considered violent, vulger, or even crude... So guess what...no matter what it may or may not be rated...there is gonna be some form of it. It is a freaking movie...

this kinda reminds me of the robocop discussion that went on years ago. Parents were pissed that their kids wanted toys to do with an 18 rated film and that in some way if it were not for the toys kids would not want to see a film about a cyborg cop taking down crime...

honestly we have age ratings for toys, we have them for films and frankly its not like transformers are misleading any one with its promo stuff so IMO parents just need to say no.

now as for this group I don't think their will ever be a time when we will see a disconnection of toys from cartoons/movies ever theirs just too much money involved and frankly it works very well for all parties (well apart from these guys)

So what if the kids aren't gonna buy them because it is a big commercial movie for the older audience...they still get a ton of our money!

ZOMG I'm brainwashed by commercials. Must... buy... TOYS!

This is just one of the many reasons I will never have kids.

This irks me.

The statement, "Violent and inappropriate movies should not be marketed towards children" is true.

The statement, "Parents ought not take their kids to violent and inappropriate movies" is also true.

The statement, "there should be concern about the fact that Hasbro is making child-friendly toys to market a not-child-friendly movie." Would be true...

Except for the fact that the movie is supposed to market the toy franchise, not the other way around.

How did we ever get to a point where Transformers is being criticized as something that is legitimately unwholesome for children? With practically R-rated humor and content?

I mean, critics have bashed Transformers for being violent in the past, but those critics were usually hippies or over-protective parents who couldn't handle the concept of fighting, explosions, conflict or any drama in general.

But today it's a different story. I went to revenge of the fallen, I saw a little kid there, about the same age I was when I got really big into transformers. This kid was screaming and crying and stuff. The violence is sometimes frightening. I totally understand why parents would flinch at the bawdy humor, too. It's in bad taste, you don't want kids hearing that stuff. It isn't like the content is very bad, either, but the filmmaking style is way too frenetic and shocking, it's like a car crash. This is disorienting for kids, and even many adults. It definitely deserves its PG-13 rating (actually, a more apt rating for the transformers films would be along the lines of NC-11, but that doesn't actually exist).
The Transformers films have turned too nasty for most children. But children are Hasbro's target audience.
That's just dumb.

Violence and child-friendliness are not mutually exclusive.
Beast Wars got pretty violent towards the end, with characters dying left and right, but it was still child-friendly.
The Harry Potter movies/books are be pretty dark and violent, but they are still child-friendly, because that violence isn't the kind of frivolous constant violence of Bay's Transformers.

I think Hasbro and Dreamworks shouldn't rethink whether or not they advertise Transformers during kids programming, they should rethink the content of their films.

If you think about the mythos of Transformers and the feelings it gave you when you watched or read any of the fiction (not just old school stuff), does it really seem like the right decision to turn it into a cross between Alien, Terminator and Animal House? The tone is wrong for the subject matter, the source material, and the target audience.

I hate these crazy parents.

I'm pretty sure I would not go see Transformers 3 if it were rated G, and a PG would make me think a lot before seeing it. I do not want Bay to water down the live action franchise to satisfy "kid friendliness" The comic book adaptations tried that route and they were almost unreadably bad.

I also think that the live action movies are far better than Beast Wars and Animated in terms of quality storytelling, and I only hold G1 in special regard because I was 12 when it happened, so my memory is biased. Only the 86 movie, the live action movies, and many of the recent comics come close to what I personally want form a TF storyline. I'm an adult, and I don't want the main stars to be 6 year old "whee! it's a transforming scooter!" morons. *cough armada cough*

If they are advertizing the movie during kids programming, that is probably not appropriate. I do think that the toys should be considered separate form the movie itself, though.

This does bother me it really does. It's not because it's targeting Transformers but it's the people behind it and their motives. What it boils down to is lazy parenting. People don't want to watch their kids and do their jobs as parents, because that would interfere with their lives. Heaven forbid we actually have to teach our children moral values and to think not just do what they're told. If you're honestly too busy to watch and teach your kids properly and be a parent, then you don't need them and shouldn't have them. If you're not fully prepared to completely change your life around for your kids, then don't, just stop. It's laziness that leads to things like this. When I hear about someone claiming something absolutely ridiculous like this, it makes me want to take the extreme opposite view. If only to spite the other side simply because they're not being mature and intelligent about it.

*claps*

This. You nailed it dude.

So it will have no relation to the first to films or Transformers in general, also most kids don't understand sex (or remember seeing it in a movie), and the ones that do, its their time to want to know more about it, as they get older, as for profanity if they know not to say it, also violence scares most kids, and it if doesn't good for them, also Tom and Jerry has been around forever and it is one of the most violent cartoons I know, and even one episode at least had some mention of something sexual, so if they wanted to do something about it, they should have did something then, not now as it is a part of are culture

its not that hard to swear in movies

you can have adult puns in it that will go over kids heads if your a good enough writer

BUT i hear kids swearing and saying the kinda stuff in tf all the time maybe these poeple should grow up and reliese by the age of 7 most kids have comited there first majour crime.

saying that maybe a cartoon verson of the movie is needed to balence this out the tf movies are more adult orentated...

the problem with that is they cant go past the current point in the movies or they shoot them selves in the foot unless it was on a diffrent story arch things like jazz lives arcee twins get named properly with out us haveing to bang our head agianst the door.

this all could work out fine ( i for one would like to see if micheal bay can direct mikeala with out progotive posses shes a good actor its not nessery )

100% yes.

Here is why I think they did that:

2007 film:
MAsturbating refrence

ROTF:
Wheelie humping Megan's leg
The Twins
"That's because hes a pussy!"
"Lets pop a cap in his ass throw him in the trunk and they ain't know nothing"

I am not saying the twins are racist. I am saying they have 2 lines children under 8 should not hear.

I found the pussy one hilarious