Shamed off Shelves

Controversy-courting fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch may have finally managed to shame itself. After waiting for previous controversial moves to bubble up into big national stories, the chain retailer this week responded to an advocacy group's complaint by quietly pulling a line of T-shirts that celebrated getting drunk.

As Katie Calogero, 19, perused the aisles of the Abercrombie & Fitch store Monday at Lakeside Shopping Center, a new line of T-shirts alarmed her.

The retailer, which has courted controversy before with its lines targeting tweens, teens and college students, displayed shirts with such pro-drinking slogans as "I Brews Easily," "Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker," and "Don't Bother I'm Not Drunk Yet."

As she read the slogans, Calogero got the message loud and clear that underage alcohol consumption is glamorous.

"There is a subconscious message here that drinking is cool," said Calogero, a student at the University of Virginia. "On a college campus, this is already accepted even though it's illegal for students who are under 21. And the shirts say the same thing to younger kids."

Calogero was apparently not alone in her views, as Abercrombie & Fitch pulled the T-shirt line from shelves and its Web site the next day.

Once again, the retailer just can't seem to keep itself out of trouble.

Following the discontinuation of racially insensitive T-shirts in April of 2002 and a sexually provocative catalog in December 2003, the company again finds itself under fire for promoting activity that is, for a good portion of its target demographic, against the law.

Unlike in the past, when Abercrombie & Fitch waited until its controversial moves were widely publicized and the topic of national debate, this time the company backtracked before the issue exploded into the national spotlight.

Officials at Abercrombie & Fitch did not return repeated calls for comment, and did not issue a formal statement explaining the decision. But it apparently came in the face of a concerted campaign led by James Copple, the executive director of The International Institute for Alcohol Awareness, a public advocacy group that works to reduce underage drinking.

"Abercrombie & Fitch wants to appeal to the adventure and risk and boldness of adolescent behavior," Copple said in a phone interview. "They portray things in their advertising like climbing mountains and playing rugby -- living on the edge. But now they are promoting the taking of a chemical and that is a step too far."

When taking into account their target audience, critics said the T-shirts go beyond the bad taste Abercrombie has been accused of in the past, and endorse a lifestyle that is against the law.

Among those critics is the increasingly image-conscious liquor industry itself.

"These T-shirts glorify drunkenness and illegal underage consumption," said Lisa Hawkins, spokes-person for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. "It is wrong and it sends the wrong message."

Copple believes that the way the message is being sent -- through trend-driven fashion -- makes it even more dangerous.

"I think fashion is a strong communicator to teens," Copple said. "You walk into most American high schools and you will see ensembles that are put together by common brands and the look is nearly universal."

David Dartnell, the fashion designer behind the David Dart collection and a recovering alcoholic and addict, has seen first-hand how destructive it can be to make alcoholism seem chic.

"As a designer myself I am appalled that the Abercrombie & Fitch design team thought alcohol slogan T-shirts were appropriate," Dartnell said. "Fashion can be used to influence people and as a tool to gain acceptance. For those reasons alone you don't want a force as potentially destructive as alcohol to be a trendy or an in thing."

This week, researchers from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., reported that promotional items such as hats, shirts and bags with logos from the alcohol industry have a direct connection with early onset drinking.

Dartnell believes that deeming a message "fashionable," as the teen trend leader did when it put cheeky messages about partying on clothing, gives it even more strength.

"Everyone, particularly young adults, wants to be on the fashion edge," Dartnell said. "While there is nothing cool about binge or social drinking, wearing these T-shirts says otherwise and it is being said to a group that is particularly vulnerable to these kinds of messages."

According to Copple, alcohol kills more young people annually than all other illegal drugs combined. Accidents, violence and poisoning associated with alcohol consumption are responsible for the deaths of more than 1,400 college students annually.

George Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policies Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the T-shirts promote the most dangerous activity involving teens and alcohol -- binge drinking and its aftermath.

"What these kinds of messages do is trivialize the issue of drinking," Hacker said. "It portrays alcohol as an integral part of social situations, but it whitewashes the problems related to drinking."

The Journal of Pediatrics reported last fall that beyond the immediate ramifications of drunken driving, an increase in sexual promiscuity and decreasing school performance, teenagers and young adults who engage in binge drinking are more susceptible to alcoholism. The study indicated that more than 40 percent of those who start drinking at age 14 or younger develop alcohol dependence. Of those who begin drinking at age 20 or older, 10 percent face the same problem.

"The number of kids on national surveys who admit to drinking in the past year is relatively small," Copple said. "But for the population that drinks, the majority are already drinking five or more alcoholic beverages in one sitting."

Copple was relieved when he learned that Abercrombie & Fitch had pulled the T-shirt collection from its shelves. However, he refused to let the company off the hook.

"I'm glad that when confronted with the fact that they were wrong, they changed their ways," he said. "But no corporation should be able to get by with selling the safety and security of our kids."


NOLA.com