THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9509300275
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
As Chrysler Corp.'s top marketing executive, John Damoose made waves in the television business when he yanked hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of ads off TV shows he considered too violent or racy.
Now, as the marketing head of Virginia Beach-based International Family Entertainment Inc., Damoose is spearheading a campaign with a more positive thrust.
IFE plans to give films, TV shows and other entertainment products marked by wholesomeness a designation called ``The Family Channel Seal of Quality.'' The campaign kicks off Friday with a series of regular weekly ads in the USA Today newspaper.
The company said products recognized will have to be ``wholesome and positive,'' ``respectful of relationships,'' ``entertaining, enriching and of enduring value,'' and enjoyable for the entire family.
The weekly selections for the seal will be made by IFE employees. An independent panel of entertainment writers is being formed to set long-term policies for the campaign.
``There's an outcry against the excessive sex and violence in television and everywhere else,'' Damoose said Friday. ``This is the beginning to creating a source authority for what quality family entertainment is and where to find it.''
Rather than recommend what not to see, Damoose and other IFE executives decided to spotlight what they deem worthwhile among the thousands of TV shows, movies, video and computer games, CD-ROMs, books, videos and music recordings aimed at children each year.
IFE, which is controlled by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and his son, Timothy, will bestow its Family Channel seal on four entertainment products each week. The initial recipients: a PBS TV show, a home video, an educational book and a site on the global Internet computer network's World Wide Web.
Damoose said Scholastic Books, an early recipient, has already asked for permission to put the bright yellow, blue and red seal on the cover of its recognized book.
IFE plans to open an Internet home page soon to further publicize the campaign, he added.
The IFE program is one of a number of efforts by entertainment companies, churches and civic organizations to help parents select from the ever-expanding heap of entertainment choices geared toward children.
The Walt Disney Co. has hinted that it plans to start a family entertainment guide, perhaps through the Internet. The U.S. Catholic Conference, which has for years circulated printed movie reviews through its film and broadcasting office, recently began offering capsule reviews and ratings through a toll-free phone number.
Meanwhile, the San Diego-based Children's Advocacy Institute and Washington-based Center for Media Education teamed up to publish a parental guide to children's TV. They plan to eventually rate TV stations throughout the country on the amount and appropriateness of their children's programming. The center's initial opposition to Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s plan to buy CBS led Westinghouse to commit to increasing children's shows on the network.
Even in relatively new media, like the Internet, programs have appeared to help parents protect their kids from sexually explicit or violent content. For example, SurfWatch Software Inc. of Los Altos, Calif., sells a program that helps screen out Internet material deemed unfit for children.
Steve Barrow, director of the Campaign for Kids' TV for the Children's Advocacy Institute, said the response to the campagn has been very strong.
The institute's wish list for children's television is broad. It campaigns against gender and race stereotyping, violence, sexual explicitness and excessive commercialization on TV.
Damoose acknowledged that IFE stands to gain financially from its campaign. It's hoping to increase public awareness of its Family Channel, an IFE-owned cable-TV network that is largely oriented toward children.
``It will play a major role in our long-term marketing strategy,'' he said.
IFE also might benefit if it issues a catalog featuring the Seal of Quality products or offers the products for sale through its planned Internet site, he noted. Both are possibilities.
But Damoose said he doubted IFE will bestow the seal on any of its entertainment productions. ``That would be kind of self-serving.'' ILLUSTRATION: B\W Photo
John Damoose is the marketing chief of Virginia Beach-based IFE.
by CNB