The FTC has responded to the complaint by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood last summer about marketing of the Transformers movie and toys to kids (see 'Advocacy Group Targets Transformers'), by urging voluntary reconsideration of marketing practices that promote PG-13 movies and toys based on them to audiences below that age. 

According to an AP article, Mary K. Engle, Associate Director of the FTC, has asked the Motion Picture Association of America to reconsider its guidelines, which currently prohibit advertising R-rated movies to kids, but handles ads for PG-13 movies on an  individual basis because the PG-13 rating is advisory, rather than a restriction on admission.  The FTC is urging that movie producers adopt explicit criteria, rather than using a case-by-case approach.  An MPAA spokesperson told the AP that the association 'take[s] this issue very seriously.' 

The FTC has also urged toy companies, QSRs and retailers to review how they sell products based on movies to kids. 

The advocacy group called the FTC reponse 'disheartening,' because it was voluntary and not mandatory.