The past two weekends have seen the release of two big, R-rated comedies, first Pineapple Express and then Tropic Thunder. Both featured stars who have, at least occasionally, dipped their toes into family friendly film waters and who have developed big followings across all age groups.

Both movies marketing campaigns also featured red-band trailers. Others and I have discussed the role of the red-band trailer in the campaigns for R-rated movies. They are great components for selling the movies to their adult audiences since, as I’ve said before, they are able to more accurately portray the movie as a whole. If a movie’s comedy or drama depends on the use of coarse language or violence then it’s better for the movie to be able to present those elements to the target audience in order to appear attractive.

Red-band trailers have come back into fashion in the last four or five years largely because of the rise of high-speed video online. On the Internet, studios can put into place safeguards, usually in the form of forms that require the inputting of name, birth-date and zip code, that are meant to keep those under 18 from seeing the trailer or other content. Invariably, though, these trailers wind up on YouTube or some other video sharing site – or directly on blogs – where there is no safeguard. This makes what’s supposed to be restricted content available to everywhere regardless of age. This is an obvious flaw in the process.

But the larger question about the advertising of R-rated films is: What advertising is appropriate?

95 percent of the advertising for an R-rated film is seen by the general audience, regardless of age. Trailers, posters and online sites are all publicly available, with only TV ads being subject to any sort of restrictions on when they can be aired in order to try and assure a mature audience. The web is especially free since it’s always there and, save for specific content there’s nothing stopping anyone of any age from viewing the entire site, including the TV spots that are otherwise regulated.

The point is that most of the advertising content for an R-rated movie is available, largely online, to an all-ages audience. The question has to be whether this is appropriate or not. After all, the end product is still unavailable to those under 18. So the notion that a product is or isn’t being marketed specifically at those under age is largely moot since they are able to see the same advertising as everyone else.

To some extent the closest analogy to an R-rated movie is alcohol. Even there, though, most of the sites for beer and other drinks are age-locked from the top, requiring the inputting of your information to even get to the front page. The advertising for movies is all ages, all the time.

There’s a case that could be made for putting age-requirements on the entire site for an R-rated movie. Doing so is by no means fool-proof, but it would at least make the advertising of these age-restricted products consistent with other similar items. As I’ve admitted, there are ways the content will get out there that are, to some extent, out of the hands of the studios. But even saying, “Well, it will wind up on YouTube eventually” is disingenuous since it’s rhetorically inconsistent with their hard-nosed efforts to make sure clips and other footage are not being shared on sites like that. Some studios especially have been overly harsh about filing takedown notices and making other moves to keep their video off YouTube and other sites. But the same sort of strong arm does not seem to be applied with any consistency when it comes to advertising materials that are meant for older viewers.

If studios are serious about making sure they’re protected from accusations of advertising their R-rated movies to minors they need to go beyond restricting access to certain content and make sure all of it is off-limits to those under 18. That which is off-limits will always be among the most sought-after by those who can’t get to them. But it’s the responsibility of those producing and providing those products – in this case movies – to take steps to make sure their works are not advertised inappropriately.