Dear Chief Executive:
Many studies show that magazine obsession with beauty-thinness has negative effects on vulnerable girls. [See, e.g., Marilyn Elias, "Study sizes up teen girls, magazines," USA TODAY, 3/2/99; Marilyn Elias, "Teen mags hurt fat-fearful girls," USA TODAY, 8/26/99]
But common sense should inform us that magazine obsession with SEX can also have negative effects on vulnerable teens and pre-teens.
In September 1999, the American Association of University Women released a report, "Teen Girls Talk About Sex, Peer Pressure and Media Images" (9/15), which described the results of summits held across the nation involving 2,100 girls, ages 11-17. According to the report, the girls said "sexual pressure" comes not just from boys but also "from the media." One girl wrote: "We're pushed to be assertive through TV, magazines..."
An article in Sunday's N.Y. Daily News ("Early Years," 3/5) described a common problem for children ages 6-10: "songs filled with sexual overtones." The article noted that children are also "exposed to sexual images every day, on billboards and other forms of media."
Enclosed is a recent article by a 13-year-old girl which appeared in Newsday (Long Island, NY). Her article describes the pressures that a "thin-obsessed society" puts on teen girls, but what caught my attention was her lament, "Every day I am bombarded by MAGAZINE COVERS..."
Next to her article, I have reprinted the lurid sex promos that appear on the front covers of the March 2000 issues of four women's magazines. These sex promos send the wrong messages to the vulnerable teens and preteens who pass through your checkouts.
Also enclosed is a recent article, "Old-Line Women's Magazines Turn to Sex...," (N.Y. Times), which focuses in large measure on the "sexually explicit" COVER HEADLINES written to attract a small minority of your adult customers.
But vulnerable teens and pre-teens must also pass through your checkouts, and a September 1999 Wirthlin Worldwide poll commissioned by Morality in Media indicated that the large majority of your adult customers find the display of such headlines at checkout counters to be "inappropriate."The Times' article also credits MIM for "press[ing]" Kroger "to conceal explicit cover lines" on Cosmopolitan. We were, of course, complimented by the Times' accreditation.
But we did not target or apply any special pressure to Kroger. What we have done with Kroger and over 300 other supermarket chains is to appeal to their CEOs and to encourage customer complaints. We expect soon to begin appealing to their Boards of directors.
If you have adopted a policy of covering up the raunchy headlines on the covers of magazines displayed at your checkout counters, and haven't already notified us, I would appreciate hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Robert Peters
President
P.S. The Philadelphia Inquirer (Erin Carroll, "Plain covers for racy mags," 2/24) reported that a local supermarket chain, Genuardi's Family Markets, issued "blinder racks" to its 33 stores for managers to place in front of all covers deemed too salacious. In so doing, said the Inquirer, "family-owned" Genuardi's "went a step further" than Kroger, which began covering the "perennially steamy" Cosmo on February 1.
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