MPAA Set To Issue Ratings With Explainers

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President and CEO Jack Valenti has announced a new ratings policy calling for all movie print advertising to include an explanation of why a film received its particular rating. The new action is in response to criticism that the current ratings system does not provide parents with sufficient information. The new policies will be implemented in the new year.""The new print advertising policy will be a key part of our educational outreach effort and represents a major step toward enhancing parental awareness of motion picture content,"" said William F. Katozian, the outgoing President of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). ""We are enormously grateful to Mr. Valenti and the many others at the MPAA who championed this effort to more widely disseminate this valuable information.""Currently, the MPAA posts ratings explanations to every movie produced since 1968 on its Web site (www.mpaa.org) but the organization has not previously mandated that they be printed in advertisements. The explanations, tailored to each film, will now run on billboards, in newspaper ads and in point of sale material.Widescreen Review will immediately implement the ratings explanations of the MPAA in its extensive search engine for widescreen format DVDs that can be found on the Widescreen Review Webzine site at www.WidescreenReview.com under ""Find It Movies DVD.