Girlcott incident

The A&F “Girlcott” was a consumer boycott of the clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch in 2005. It was launched by the Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers group of the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania. The “Girlcott” came about when the group funded a consumer boycott to protest a line of Abercrombie and Fitch T-shirts displaying messages the girls found sexist, such as “Who Needs Brains When You Have These?” ["Abercrombie and Fitch Target of 'Girlcott'" Pittsburgh Tribune Review. 26 October 2005. 2 May 2008. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_387780.html]

Supported by WGF, the girls held a press conference and launched an e-mail campaign targeted at encouraging other teens to “gircott” A&F until they pulled the T-shirts. The campaign received substantial media coverage, and some of the girls, along with WGF Executive Director Heather Arnet, appeared on NBC’s "The Today Show", CNN’s "Paula Zahn Now," Fox’s "Hannity & Colmes," MSNBC, NPR, and other national news and international media. Five days after this media coverage, Abercrombie and Fitch pulled two of the shirts off of their shelves, released an apology to girls for producing the T-shirts, and agreed to have A&F corporate executives meet with the “Girlcott” girls at A&F corporate headquarters.

As a result of the “Girlcott,” the group came up with their own line of T-shirts. [The Women and Girls Foundation. 2008. 1 May 2008. http://www.wgfpa.org/girl2girlgrants/section_girlsOurVoices/girlcott.htm.]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.wgfpa.org/section_home/index.htm The homepage of the Women and Girls Foundation]