Children’s Ad Group Wants To Make Sure Kids Don’t Use Girl Scouts Cookie Oven Without An Adult
While it’s all well and good for kids to feel like they’re the master of their own miniature kitchen tools, the maker of the Girl Scouts Cookie Oven says it will change its advertising to clearly show that parents have to be around to supervise when youngsters are using the toy.
So that kids and parents don’t get the wrong idea about baking Girl Scouts cookies with the oven, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit — a part of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation — recommended that Wicked Cool Toys change its TV commercials for the product so that it depicts adult supervision.
CARU’s guidelines for safety say that if an activity wouldn’t be safe to do without adult watching, that supervision should be depicted in advertising for the product. The U.S. Consumer Safety Product Commission also recommends that parents supervise the use of any electrical toy product.
Wicked Cool agreed with CARU’s suggestion, and will include an audio disclosure on the ad as well as including an adult along with the images of the children playing with the oven. The company says it accepts the group’s “decision in its entirety and will update the commercial to include a clear visual of a parent overseeing the activity in future airings of the Girl Scouts Cookie Oven commercial.”
There is a written disclosure on the ad below, but apparently that doesn’t cut it where CARU is concerned:
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