Back to School With Jack Daniels?

Industry letters of acknowledgement

• JC Penney letter denies it promotes beer
  and liquor logo T-shirts to youth
• Anheuser-Busch
• Anheuser-Busch
• Diageo
• Brown Forman

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JC Penney's catalogs for back-to-school clothes feature T-shirts decorated with logos of alcohol makers.

The JC Penney's catalogs for back-to-school clothes and accessories in recent Sunday newspapers feature T-shirts decorated with logos for Jack Daniels, Budweiser, Miller Lite and Guinness. The moderately priced ($9.99) shirts are described as "men's novelty tees," but they appear on the same pages with "young men's, boys' and girls'" fashions worn by models who appear high school age at the oldest. (Community partners have noticed similar brand labeled clothing at Target and several other stores.) We wrote a letter of protest to a JC Penney Board Member who's also on the Advisory Board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Here's what you can do:

• Write a letter to the retailers' national headquarters to complain about this irresponsible marketing of alcohol to youth. See our sample letters to JC Penney, Sears.
  
  
• Use Talk Back to register a complaint with the trade organizations responsible for regulating advertising by Budweiser, Jack Daniels, Miller Lite, Guinness and any other alcohol brands featured on "back-to-school" clothing. It's quick and easy to use Talk Back.
  
  
• Visit your local JC Penney's, Target or other clothing store to see if it is selling alcohol brand clothing for young people. Speak to the department manager and ask that the items be removed from the store.
  
  
• Spread the word to parents, clergy, pediatricians and others who share your concern about promoting alcohol to underage youth.