Pumphouse

"Girlcott' Succeeds!
Abercrombie & Fitch gives in to the demands of teenage girls who objected to a new line of T-shirts with 'sexist' slogans" By Aaron Parsley Nov 05, 2005 12:00PM EST

Controversial clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch will stop selling some of its T-shirts after a national 'girlcott' by teenage girls, who objected to slogans on the shirts that broadcast messages like, "Who needs brains when you have these," "Blondes are adored, brunettes are ignored," "I make you look fat," "Give me something to scream about," and "Available for parties." "We recognize that the shirts in question, while meant to be humorous, might be troubling to some," the retailer announced Friday.
Earlier this week, the girl group of Pennsylvania launched the "girlcott" in protest over the t-shirts with an e-mail campaign and an appearances on television news shows to broadcast their concerns. "The 'girlcott' we launched this week got the attention of Abercrombie & Fitch," the Women & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania said in a statement Friday. "They contacted us and we reached an agreement that satisfies us. Several offensive t-shirts to which we objected are being removed from store shelves."
This is not the first controversy for Abercrombie & Fitch. The teen-oriented clothing company has been repeatedly denounced for featuring half-naked models in their ads. They settled a lawsuit in 2004, after Asian and Latino groups accused the company of racial insensitivity in previous campaigns. And last year when the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team failed to bring home the gold, Ambercrombie & Fitch began selling tops with slogans that read "L is for loser."
The T-shirts were eventually pulled out of stores when the gymnastic team called for a boycott. Initially it didn't look like the recent 'girlcott' would have the same results. "These particular T-shirts have been very popular among adult women to whom they are marketed," a rep for Ambercrombie & Fitch said earlier this week. "Our clothing appeals to a wide variety of customers."
We asked TEEN PEOPLE readers what they thought of the T-shirts and 55 percent of those who took the poll said the shirts were "offensive." Another 25 percent were not offended by the shirts. Another 20 percent expressed an interest in buying one of the shirts, but the retailer's decision to stop selling them may prevent that from ever happening. "We look forward to meeting with Abercrombie & Fitch to discuss ways we could collaborate on more empowering messages their products could be sending to their customers," the Women & Girls group said Friday. "We appreciate Abercrombie's quick action."

It won't change the world I guess! Or will it?
I suppose we are still the same consumer oriented, individualistic society in a world of plenty where people die from want...

I suspect the circuit breaker there would be finding effective and empowering ways to put the info in front of motivated young people and to mentor them in responding... instead of seeing young people as 'the problem' they could be treated as people of immense potential!!