More 'Skins' Angst: After Advertisers Flee, PTC Starts Campaign Aimed at Viacom Shareholders

When all else fails, aim for the wallet.

That's apparently the strategy of the Parent's Television Council, the family-focused watchdog group that's been on nothing less than a jihad against the MTV show "Skins."

While poor ratings may end up doing the show in anyway, the group apparently wants to twist the knife further, after it's last campaign managed to drive a slew of advertisers from the show. The group is apparently launching a new campaign aimed at shareholders of Viacom, MTV's parent company.

As New York Magazine recently reported, the group just started sending out letters claiming that the network is "in breach of fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders," a serious allegation that could have potentially devastating effects on the show if shareholders apply pressure.

The letter says:

"[Skins] has become radioactive to the advertising community...The only viewers that have stuck around are the 12-17-year-olds MTV tried to claim were not the target audience. Viacom has one prime directive as a publicly traded company: to return a profit to its shareholders. In allowing one of its properties, MTV, to continue to air a program that is losing the company money, Viacom is in breach of its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. MTV has an agenda to push, and they are going to push it at all costs. They are determined to rewrite the rule book for television standards, forever lowering the threshold for what can and should be permitted on advertiser-supported basic cable."

The show's creators, of course, continue to defend it.

“In the UK, viewers and commentators very quickly realized that although there are some sensational aspects to the show, Skins is actually a very serious attempt to get to the roots of young people’s lives. It deals with relationships, parents, death, illness, mental health issues, the consequences of drug use and sexual activity. It is just that these are characterized from the point of view of the many young people who write the show and has a very straightforward approach to their experiences; it tries to tell the truth,” said the show's creator Bryan Elsley.

Will 'Skins' survive? Will enough viewers be around to watch the show if it does? Steamy teen love scenes aside, that may end up being the biggest drama of all.