Commercial Alert is a project of

Public Citizen Public Citizen is a non-profit, Progressivism in the United States, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas, Austin, Texas. Lobbying efforts Public Citizen ...

, a

consumer advocacy Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution. Consumer Organizations may operate via protests, litigation, camp ...

non-profit organization. Commercial Alert opposes

advertising to children Advertising to children refers to the act of advertising products or services to children as defined by national laws and advertising standards. Scope and form Advertising to children can take place on traditional media such as television, radio ...

and the commercialization of culture, education, and government. It works on issues such as commercialism,

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

, product placement,

native advertising Native advertising, also called sponsored content, is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases it functions like an advertorial, and manifests as a video, article or editorial. ...

, advertising in schools, ad-creep, and privacy. It works to reduce the negative impacts of advertising on public health, such as

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's ...

. It was co-founded in 1999 by prominent consumer advocate

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...

. The mission of Commercial Alert is "to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy". In 2001, it complained to the Federal Trade Commission that

Internet search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a l ...

s were failing to unambiguously label paid results as advertising. In 2005, the Federal Trade Commission rejected a request by Commercial Alert to identify product placement in television programs as advertising. In 2007, Commercial Alert criticized Jack Daniels sponsorship of the television series ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

''.

References

External links

Commercial Alert
Anti-corporate activism Charities based in Washington, D.C. Public Citizen {{nonprofit-org-stub