XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: mike812@aol.com   
      
   A few weeks after her foray into the Sports Illustrated swimsuit   
   edition, Barbie is entangled in controversy again, this time   
   over her ties with the Girl Scouts.   
      
   Two advocacy groups often critical of corporate advertising   
   tactics — the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the   
   Center for a New American Dream — on Thursday urged the Girl   
   Scouts of the USA to end its partnership with the doll's   
   manufacturer, the Mattel toy company.   
      
   The partnership, announced last August, includes a Barbie-themed   
   activity book, a website, and a Barbie participation patch — the   
   first Girl Scout uniform patch with corporate sponsorship.   
      
   "Holding Barbie, the quintessential fashion doll, up as a role   
   model for Girl Scouts simultaneously sexualizes young girls,   
   idealizes an impossible body type, and undermines the Girl   
   Scouts' vital mission to build 'girls of courage, confidence and   
   character,'" said Susan Linn, director of the Boston-based   
   commercial-free childhood organization.   
      
   She said the Barbie patch — targeted at 5-to-8-year-old Daisies   
   and Brownies — would transform these girls into "walking   
   advertisements."   
      
   "This is product placement at its worst," said New American   
   Dream's executive director, Wendy Philleo, who described herself   
   as a longtime admirer of the Girl Scouts.   
      
   "Our children are already being bombarded by marketers' pitches   
   at stores, at home, online, on TV, and in school," said Philleo,   
   whose Charlottesville, Va.-based group tries to counter the   
   commercialization of American culture.   
      
   The Girl Scouts' national headquarters in New York rejected the   
   groups' appeal.   
      
   "Our partnership with Mattel focuses on career exploration and   
   teaches girls about inspiring women in a fun way," its statement   
   said. "We stand behind this partnership, as it helps us bring to   
   over 2 million Girl Scouts the message that they can do   
   anything."   
      
   That's the essence of the Barbie uniform patch — a bright pink   
   oval with a gold-letter slogan stitched on it: "Be anything. Do   
   everything."   
      
   Barbie — still slim-waisted and long-legged after 55 years — had   
   pursued roughly 150 different careers, and she stretched her   
   boundaries again in February by posing along with real-life   
   supermodels in Sports Illustrated's 50th anniversary swimsuit   
   issue. Anticipating the criticism that ensued, Mattel promoted   
   the campaign with the catchword "unapologetic."   
      
   In announcing the partnership with Mattel last August, Girl   
   Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chavez depicted both her own organization   
   and Barbie as "American icons."   
      
   "Together, we are teaching girls that their futures are wide   
   open with possibilities," Chavez said at the time.   
      
   The Girl Scouts have not disclosed the monetary value of the   
   partnership with Mattel.   
      
   The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood said that a game on   
   the Girl Scouts' Barbie-themed website encouraged girls to   
   identify careers based on attire — "from a veterinarian in a   
   frilly miniskirt, to a pink-suited U.S. president, to a race car   
   driver in stilettos."   
      
   Said Susan Linn, the campaign director, "The website is little   
   more than an interactive ad for Barbie promoting the brand's   
   insidious message that women really are what they wear."   
      
   Due to their size and high profile, the Girl Scouts have been a   
   frequent target of criticism over the years, notably from   
   certain conservatives who contend — despite the Girl Scouts'   
   repeated denials — that the organization tilts toward the   
   abortion-rights side of the national abortion debate.   
      
   Last month, some anti-abortion groups launched a boycott of the   
   Girl Scouts' annual drive to sell cookies.   
      
   http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/girl-scouts-asked-end-   
   partnership-barbie-22797918   
      
   The cookies are really lousy and not fit for human consumption   
   anymore.   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)