Group says clothing company promotes drinking to kids

An Oregon group that works to fight alcohol and drug abuse said Thursday that a popular clothing chain is promoting underage drinking.

Oregon Partnership said the company Old Navy is encouraging underage drinking by selling T-shirts that have sayings like: “Beer Pressure: Worth Giving In To!”

“A company like that should not be selling these kinds of shirts to teenagers,” said Pete Schulberg, a representative of the group. “You want to be a good community partner? You want to be socially responsible? Don’t sell T-shirts to young customers about binge drinking and how cool it is to drink beer when these customers are 14, 15, 16 years old.”

In a letter responding to Oregon Partnership’s request to have the T-shirts pulled from stores, an Old Navy representative wrote, “(We) were so sorry to hear that you and others have found some of our graphic tees to contain objectionable messages. At Old Navy we strive to offer merchandise that appeal to a wide range of interests.”

Shoppers who were shown some of the T-shirts had varying opinions about them.

“I’m 21, and I shop at Old Navy,” said Reggie Mills who said he is OK with the shirts. “So, I feel it’s up to the parents to decide where their children should shop and not what the store should carry.”

Ali Powell, however, said she thinks the company is marketing the shirts to kids. “Yeah, because that’s probably the majority of people that shop at Old Navy,” she said.

Inside a Beaverton Old Navy several of the shirts were found to be sold in a section marked “Men”.

But Schulberg said that doesn’t matter. “Go into any Old Navy store when school’s out and you’ll see what their customer base is,” he said. “It’s teens and it’s young people.”

In the past, Oregon Partnership has been successful in getting both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s to stop carrying similar T-shirts.