Urban Outfitters' Drink-Themed Shirts Slammed
While we can all appreciate a good drink, there's one thing we can't get behind: products encouraging the misuse of alcohol. And it seems that Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has found a new target to protest for its pro-booze products: Urban Outfitters.
The clothing store, no stranger to controversy, is under fire for a new line of women's T-shirts with some heavy phrasing: "I Drink You're Cute," "I Vote for Vodka," and "USA Drinking Team" among them, reports the Huffington Post and the New York Daily News. And they're making parents across the board cringe, especially because they're targeted to young girls. Said Jan Withers, national president of MADD to the Daily News, the tees are inappropriate for girls under the age of 21. And the major market for Urban Outfitters is girls between the ages of 18 and 24. "If they're targeting that audience, then they're sending the message that it's cool to drink ... We know of the dangers of underage drinking and the fact that it's just downright illegal," she said to the Daily News.
However, as Yahoo Shine reports, Urban Outfitters doesn't need to take the shirts off the shelves just because MADD is protesting. Said Jan Evans, the spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission's website to prevent underage drinking, dontserveteens.gov, to Shine, the shirts are protected by laws allowing "the promotion of branded merchandise." Urban isn't the only store to come under fire for boozy clothing; Forever 21 had a similar outcry in 2008 against its beer-marketed shirts.