A Bone to Pick

[Picture Here*]

I have been receiving newsletters from Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood for over a year now. I've been impressed with their goals of stopping corporations from marketing so aggressively to children and teenagers. They were recently successful in stopping a school district in Florida from allowing McDonalds to advertise on report cards and entice children into their store with the promise of a free happy meal for good grades.

Today I received an email from them announcing their campaign to stop Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus (a hospital my own children would likely be admitted to if they had serious health issues) from accepting money from Abercrombie and Fitch in exchange for renaming their emergency room The Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center. I am upset that a Children's Hospital dedicated to improving children's health would even consider accepting money from a company that so blatantly markets sex to children, preteens and teenagers, undermining their health and well-being.

At the same time, I am proud of CCFC for actively announcing their disapproval and encouraging others to do the same. They supported a long list of doctors, organizations and professionals in submitting a letter to the Children's Hospital administrators urging them not to sell naming rights to Abercrombie and Fitch.

If you'd like to read about the campaign and add your own letter to the hospital, you can do so here.

I'll step off the soapbox now.

*I thought about posting the pictures sent out by CCFC depicting the kind of marketing they're fighting, and then decided I just couldn't do it. I would be advertising for the company I'm trying to stop! I'm sure you don't need much creativity and imagination to remember the last Ambercrombie Ad you saw.