By their own admission on the company website, Juicy Couture is a fashion brand that aims to “deliver an element of surprise in all its designs”.  If that was the mission, then consider it accomplished because I was certainly surprised to see this Juicy Couture shirt while out shopping with my tween and teenaged daughters.

          I was stunned.  Who thought this would be a good idea?  What kind of marketing executive sees their brand name under the words SEX and DRUGS in big, bold, black letters on a plain white shirt and thinks, “Yes, this is the message I’d like to put out.”  Furthermore, what sort of brand that markets to young women and girls would actually ENDORSE drug use along with their name?  It doesn’t make any sense at all.  For people who are not regular customers of Juicy Couture and see this shirt, what are they supposed to think about the brand, if not that they endorse drug use? 

Why would you put your brand in that kind of negative light?

          The only thing I kept thinking about was the possible effect a message like this could have on impressionable young girls.  Let’s say, a girl is a customer of Juicy Couture and she sees a shirt like this in the store, just like I did.  As parents, it becomes more challenging to keep our children on the path of a healthy lifestyle when brands are releasing products that have their marketing crosshairs aimed DIRECTLY at them.  The irresponsible message that Juicy Couture is sending is that it’s okay to do drugs and make bad decisions because that’s what Juicy Couture customers do. 

You’re an influential brand.  The things you say and do are taken to heart by many young people.  Don’t put out foolish and dangerous messages like the one on this shirt.

          But maybe, just maybe, the point of the shirt was to cause a huge splash.  Stir up some controversy.  Get a little buzz going around your brand.  Well consider that mission also accomplished.  Perhaps, Juicy Couture, you wanted to associate your brand with something “dangerous”, “edgy”, and perhaps to your minds, “exciting”.  But after my years working to rid New Jersey of the scourge of drug abuse, I do not associate drug use with some kind of forbidden thrill.  I associate it with addiction, with broken lives and families, and with death.  To the CEO of Juicy Couture, Paul Blum, I ask you to reconsider the decision to let this shirt with this dangerous message out into the open market and to stop glorifying drug use to our children and grandchildren.  But most of all, I ask you to respect our mission at the Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey and similar organizations all over the country; to keep our children drug free.

          Parents, let this serve as a reminder to us all that our kids are being lured into making unhealthy decisions every day.  Remember, the most important thing that stands between your kids and drug use is YOU.  Parents are truly the anti-drug.  Please, keep the door open when it comes to conversations with your kids about drugs.  Consider this an opportunity to start that conversation if you haven’t already.  They have questions.  Just be sure that you are the one giving the answers.