‘Skins’ Loses Advertisers — and Viewers

The second episode of MTV’s “Skins” suffered a dramatic drop in the ratings this week, to 1.6 million viewers from 3.3 million the prior week, as a half-dozen advertisers publicly distanced themselves from the provocative new drama series.

Since the sexual content of the series came under scrutiny last week, General Motors, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. division of Mars, the Taco Bell division of Yum Brands, H&R Block, the Schick division of Energizer Holdings and Subway restaurants have all withdrawn from the series. Others that were in the debut episode on Jan. 17 were not back in the second episode, among them Foot Locker. MTV has continued to defend the series publicly. It has not directly commented on its plans to edit some of the more explicit scenes featuring actors under the age of 18. Last week, concerns were raised inside MTV about whether the scenes could violate federal child pornography statutes. The show’s advertisers were targeted by the Parents Television Council, a television watchdog group that has called the show “dangerous.”