“Skins” just got spanked.
After Viacom executives ordered the producers of the graphic MTV drama about dissolute teenagers to go back to the editing room and tone down the nudity and sexual content, Taco Bell has pulled its ads.
The fast-food giant was spurred on by the Parents Television Council, which has made quite the laundry list of drug and alcohol references in the first episode and requested the boycott.
The censorship group has called “Skins” the “most dangerous program ever for children.”
Based on an award-winning British series with the same name, “Skins” aims to reflect adolescent life as it is really lived by today’s teens, and the cast has some underage actors who are seen naked. While nervous execs ponder, perhaps too late, that the show has broken pornography laws, Taco Bell has decided to move its advertising to other shows on the embattled cable network.
At the moment, MTV is standing behind “Skins,” which attracted three million viewers for its series debut, saying that it works “with all of our producers on an ongoing basis to ensure our shows comply with laws and community standards.”