Embedded advertising is everywhere — and much of it, especially during the holidays, targets children.

The UCC's Office of Communication, Inc. is asking you to take notice – and then to take an active role in forwarding the word about the potentially harmful role of product placement in today's media.

Product placement seems harmless enough, says the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, executive director of OC, Inc., the historic media-justice arm of the UCC. Yet branded content now consumes 45 percent of prime-time network programming in addition to paid commercials.

Nielsen reports that American Idol featured products 4,636 times in the first half of 2008.

"While Simon, Paula and Randy may not necessarily prefer Diet Coke in real life, millions of American Idol viewers are led to believe they do — at Coca-Cola's paid insistence," says Guess.

To raise awareness of this troubling trend in embedded advertising, OC, Inc. is rolling out its "Spare Kids the Ads" campaign this week.

Three holiday e-cards – designed to promote awareness about increasing product placement and its impact on transparency in corporate influence and scriptwriting – are available for participants to send to friends and family members. OC, Inc. is encouraging UCC members to join media-reform activists in distributing the creative e-cards far and wide as a way to take a stand for a better media.

To get started, simply go to <ucc.org/sparekidstheads>.

"We think this a fun and informative way to ask people to consider the growing impact of product placement in the media," says Guess. "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently looking into how embedded advertising is becoming more intrusive, especially in relation to its targeting of children."

In June, the UCC's OC, Inc. joined with the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood in urging the FCC to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on product placement and product integration, citing the increasingly blurred lines between television programming and advertising.

"We are deeply concerned that these stealth advertising salvos were being aired during a nationwide epidemic of obesity and diabetes, when food producers were under scrutiny for their marketing tactics," the letter to the FCC stated.

You can also express your concern about the proliferation of embedded advertising by visiting the FCC's website, <fcc.gov/contacts.html>, and/or by emailing FCC Board Chairman Kevin Martin at kjmweb@fcc.org.

The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.) was established in 1959. Throughout its history, OC, Inc. has advocated for persons historically excluded from the media, especially women and people of color; petitioned the FCC to issue EEO rules; sought to guarantee educational and informational children's programming; defended the Equal Time Rule for political candidates; supported efforts to establish low-power FM radio; protected affordable access to emerging technologies; and urged strengthening of basic corporate character requirements for those who transmit images and data.