August 25, 2005

Alan Lacy
Chairman & CEO
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
3333 Beverly Rd.
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Dear Mr. Lacy:

We were disappointed to discover that this Sunday's Sears catalog featured T-shirts decorated with logos for Guinness and Miller High Life. The moderately priced ($9.99) shirts are described as “young men's novelty screen tees,” and are worn by models that appear high school age.

Underage drinking is a huge problem across the country. In addition to the many young lives lost in DUI crashes, underage drinking contributes to school failure, sexual assault, suicide, and violence and increases the risk of life-long alcohol dependence. Media messages that glamorize drinking or trivialize youth drinking fuel this tragic and costly problem. Research presented by Dr. James D. Sargent this May at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Washington, D.C. showed that young people who own promotional merchandise, including shirts, are far more likely to start drinking while underage.

We understand why the makers of Guinness and Miller High Life would want young people to wear these brand names on their clothes- they become walking billboards. We don't understand why Sears would be an accomplice to irresponsibly promoting alcohol to underage youth.

We urge you to remove alcohol brand clothing from your stores. We also hope you will make it a policy not to carry such merchandise in the future.

Sincerely,

{Your Name}
{Your Address}