Watchdog Alert: JC Penney goes back to school without liquor logos?

Last year many of you asked JC Penney to stop doing the alcohol industry’s dirty work and remove alcohol-branded T-shirts from its back-to-school ads and store displays. You’ll recall that most of the low priced ($9.99) shirts were described as “men's novelty tees,” but appeared on the same pages with models who seemed high school age at most. One catalog advertised Budweiser, Corona and Guinness logo T-shirts along with other “screen tees for juniors and men.” Despite letters to JC Penney, and direct requests to local store managers from watchdogs like you, the company refused to remove the shirts.

Evidence suggests that we may have had more impact than we knew. So far this year, we haven’t seen or heard of any back-to-school ads for alcohol logo wear at JC Penney. Visits to the JC Penney Web site and our local store revealed no new alcohol-branded merchandise (although we did find three leftover shirts from last year’s stock).

Before we declare victory, we want to be sure this is a national change. We’re asking all friendly alcohol industry watchdogs to scan JC Penney back-to-school ads (in the mail or your Sunday paper) and visit the JC Penney store near you this week. If you find any alcohol-branded merchandise, please tell us what you found and in which newspaper or store you found it. (We’d also like to know if you don’t find anything.) Please email your observations to Leigh Steffy at LeighS@MarinInstitute.org by September 8, 2006.

With your help, we’ll know if JC Penney has really stopped helping the alcohol industry use young people as billboards for beer and liquor.

Best regards,

Leigh Steffy
Monitoring and Information Manager
The Marin Institute