The association formed a coalition with other industry organizations in November 2003 to oppose Commercial Alert's attacks on product placement.

Groups like Commercial Alert want "simultaneous disclosure" of embedded placements.

To skeptics who argue that most people know a product placement when they see one, Commercial Alert responds that it is just not true.

Commercial Alert concedes that a simul-disclosure rule might "reduce the number of hidden advertisements on TV."

But a nonprofit group called Commercial Alert sent a letter late last week to 160 members of Congress, urging them to withdraw financing from the campaign.

Commercial Alert is the most recent in a growing number of advocacy efforts intended to monitor Madison Avenue; others include Adbusters and Public Citizen.

But critics like Gary Ruskin, executive director at Commercial Alert in Portland, Ore., said the Kaiser Foundation report did not go far enough.

Commercial Alert asks for full disclosure of all product-placement arrangements, arguing that most product placements are deceptive and not clearly disclosed.

Commercial Alert is a non-profit civic organization that opposes advertising to children and the commercialization of culture, education, and government.

In 2007, Commercial Alert criticized Jack Daniels sponsorship of Mad Men.