Update: Miss Bimbo off her diet pills.The boys behind missbimbo.com had second thoughts about the messages they were sending their players:

As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game. We apologise to any players whom this may inconvenience but we feel in light of this weeks proceedings it is the correct action to take.

Can a Bratz doll represent a strong role model? I’m going with “no,” but would like to hear the arguments.

Relaunched Sweet Valley High books have thinner characters. Thanks to Facebook PEM Fan Juliet Ray. Why would Random House a) even think to do this and b) point it out in a press release?

Celebrating Families attacks consumer culture in the U.K. Psychologists Maye Taylor and Helen Sanderson believe parents are unfairly blamed in the media:

They are getting all the responsibility for what is being claimed as a breakdown in family life and all the experts are telling them they are doing it wrong. We are both psychologists and both parents and we thought we would fight back.”

Good idea!

Thanks to all those who thought of Parents for Ethical Marketing when you heard about Miss Bimbo. For those of you who haven’t been introduced to the online game, you can get a great overview at Hoyden About Town.

Miss Bimbo is, to say the least, horrifying.

All the recent press about Miss Bimbo has led to some pretty sad online discussions — and has made me realize we have so far to go to educate parents and the public about what’s healthy kids.

Some of the comments I’ve read online, which are pretty representative of prevailing attitudes:

Brilliant! By making their website over-the-top ridiculous, they are teaching girls that the behavior required by the game is ridiculous. They are clearly poking fun at “bimbo” behavior, not encouraging it. (via)

Nice theory, but the website really isn’t over-the-top ridiculous. Not when four-year-olds play with Bratz dolls. Not when ten-year-olds wear thong underwear. Not with the amount of money parents and young girls spend on clothing.

I am going to go against the tide here and say that I could see a lot of older girls, in their early to mid-teens, who would play this ironically and for fun. The kinds of girls who hate Paris Hilton and her ilk, and loved watching her go to jail, and there are a lot of those girls. They are the silent majority. At least in my world, they are. (via)

A game based on hating other girls and targeting them for ridicule? Not so noble. And not a trait I’d like to instill in my kids.

Parents who don’t want thier kids to participate in this can do thier job as parents and not let the kid go to the site. Sadly, parents don’t want to take responsibility to raise thier children. (via)

and

Of course its terrible . But people should try being parents instead of blaming web sites or wanting the Gov. or other bodies to raise their children for them,And Yes I sucessfully raised 3 Girls (via)

A child who visits the site does not necessarily have parents who don’t take responsibility. Ever heard of a friend’s house? Or the library?

And it still amazes me that people think vocal parents are bad parents. Doesn’t it make more sense that someone who speaks out about problems in their children’s world is a good parent? 

But you know, I’ve never seen an ad for Miss Bimbo. There are no Miss Bimbo dolls. Or Miss Bimbo stickers, or movies, or fruit snacks. No one’s promoting the Miss Bimbo website in schools. There are no Miss Bimbo coloring books. And no Miss Bimbo theme parks.

Guess there are lots of bimbos to worry about.

Related: Watchdog investigates website that lures girls with plastic surgery and diet

From our friends at Shameless Magazine Blog and from commenter Brianne: turns out the beinggirl.com article on eating-disordered behavior was removed from the U.S. site. But not the Canadian site. And, with more than forty sites, who knows where else it (or something like it) still exists.

Thea at Shameless finds even more reasons to block beinggirl.com at your house.

Some product managers and their creatives were up just a little too late (and possibly smoking just a little too much) reading the latest Four-Year-Old-Girl-Thought-Leader data:

Says here that four-year-old girls love horses.

Yep. And that they love makeup. And princesses.

And tiny little thongs. Heh, heh. And strappy five-inch heels.

Hey! Wait. One. Minute!

Genius! 

I’m waiting for the day when one of them says, Maybe we should give those little girls another option.

“Fashion’s back and it’s got a brand new name… Struts!” 
 
The Struts brand is an attitude and a lifestyle for girls who are on the cutting edge of what’s hot in fashion 
 
Struts combine a girl’s natural fondness of horses and her love for fashion dolls.  
 
Struts will be the new buzz word on the playground - the new word of mouth brand with a sense of hipness - Fashion with a Kick! 

FOUR-YEAR-OLDS, people, do NOT have the attitudes or the lifestyles of adults, are NOT on the cutting edge of what’s hot, are NOT hip, and should NOT be classified as word-of-mouth marketers.

Just writing this post makes me feel like taking a shower. 

Fun details and commentary here, here, here, and here.

The story on Procter & Gamble’s Beinggirl.com just keeps getting worse.

First of all, I found out the reason the story about the article that promotes eating-disordered behavior to young girls got to Kate Harding in the first place was because a reader’s daughter had received the P & G-sponsored pamphlet in school. The pamplet directs the girls to the website.

So not only does P & G get the luxury of a captive audience, they can then guide the girls to more advertising — and to destructive misinformation.

The discussions that the girls are having in the comment sections are just heartbreaking. Many talk of wanting to lose weight (even in discussions on other topics) or about how they have tried purging or stopped eating altogether. They ask each other questions and give each other advice.

Shouldn’t there be an adult or health professional monitoring these discussions to offer help or to direct the girls to resources?

And why are the girls allowed to post their email addresses? 

The rest of the site is not unlike the fourth-grade pamphlet we received in school from the makers of Kotex: parts seem to be written thirty years ago. From Shaving 101:

Shaving isn’t what it used to be. You have things your mom never did, like multi-blade razors that help prevent nicks and cuts. And shave gels that leave you silky smooth and soft.

And from Cosmetically yours:

It wasn’t long ago that being blond was brassy, only a certain kind of woman would dare to paint her fingernails, and your mom would spit into her cake mascara.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t have to spit into my mascara, and I never saw my mother do it, either. 

There’s also a hair care product selector. See how easy it is to choose a product based on, um, what you need?

Long Term Relationship Collection
Body Envy Collection
Drama Clean Collection
Set Me Up Collection

Beinggirl.com may be a source of some good information for young girls, but how do you know where your daughter will end up on the site? 

And the fact that the offending article is still on the site today is just plain irresponsible.

Pass this information along to every single teacher and parent you know. P & G should not be allowed to promote eating-disordered behaviors to a captive group of girls in our public schools.

And contact P & G through beinggirl.com and ask them to take the article down. It’s the very least they can do.

A Procter & Gamble-sponsored website is promoting eating-disordered behaviors to young girls who “use food to provide the good feelings [they’re] missing.”

Even though P & G assures us moms that Beinggirl.com is a “safe, credible and private” source for information, I certainly won’t trust anything on the site after reading What Does the War Have to Do with Your Weight?

. . . With half of Americans already fighting the battle of the bulge, and over a third of Americans classified as obese, it’s important not to let our emotions contribute to bad eating habits that will only promote even more bad feelings. Here is some advice from the experts about what to do when you’re tempted to use food to make you feel better. . . .

5.  Post-It notes are great for reminding you of the right thing to do. Stick them on the bathroom mirror, on the inside of your locker, on your computer. Be creative with your reminder. “How hungry are your really?” “Exactly why are you eating that now?” “What will the scale say tomorrow morning?”

Emphasis mine, and that’s just number 5. In Call for action: Site for adolescent teens promotes eating disorders, Rachael at The F-Word reviews P & G’s suggestions and tells us how they contribute to disordered eating. She also says:

Look, it’s one thing to encourage people to examine the issues affecting their food choices, but these are young, impressionable girls who are at the ripe age when most eating disorders develop. If a girl truly has a problem with emotional eating, chances are, she isn’t emotionally prepared to handle it herself. The site suggests professional help only as an afterthought, and nowhere does it encourage girls to talk to their parents or a trusted adult.

The article doesn’t say who these “experts” are, but it sounds like advice gathered from some product managers sitting around in the P & G lunch room.

Read the post at The F-Word to find out how to contact Procter & Gamble.  

You know, I keep hoping to find one of these corporate-sponsored “girl” sites that truly acts responsibly. I suspected that wouldn’t happen at a site like Beinggirl.com, which is

a place where girls can come together to learn, share, communicate with each other and have loads of fun

and

the place to be for the hottest free samples from Always and Tampax. . . .

Big Liberty takes a closer look at other sections of Beinggirl.com and finds even more! misinformation to confuse young girls on health and diet.

No matter what they say, the P & Gs and Unilevers of this world will always choose profit over our children’s best interests.

Tell Nationwide Children’s Hospital: No Naming Rights For Abercrombie & Fitch

RE: the Abercrombie & Fitch children’s hospital wing: We learn from today’s New York Times article that there is a difference between selling naming rights and naming something after a corporation that donates to you.

Uh-huh.

We also learn that the lobby of the new Nationwide Children’s Hospital Emergency Department and Trauma Center will be named after Limited Too and Justice retail chains.

Interesting.

The Consumerist illustrates what the new hospital wing might look like, as does Reality Rant.

Commenters? Before writing with creative suggestions on relocating my family to South Korea, please take five minutes to read the reasoning behind the request for the hospital to reconsider the name of the new wing. Thanks.

Related posts:
Sexy Teen Retailer Bad, Lead Toy Maker Good
Abercrombie Name Should Not Be on Children’s ER
Abercrombie Presents the Hottest Emergency Room for Children Ever (Hey, Gawker, if you’re going to reference my post):

. . . . judging by a 2006 Salon profile of the company they are probably right. In it, Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries defended thongs for middle school girls, which had been imprinted with statements like “Eye Candy” and “Wink Wink,” by saying “You know what? I still think those are cute underwear for little girls. And I think anybody who gets on a bandwagon about thongs for little girls is crazy.” . . .  After the jump, an outraged anti-Abercrombie letter signed by 16 “advocacy organizations” and “about 800 Ph. D.’s,” according to one of the signatories.

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