海角大神

In the United States, Victoria鈥檚 Secret is emblazoning girls鈥� bottoms with salacious phrases, while in Japan an ad agency is听enlisting young girls to wear temporary tattoo ads on their thighs. Both are advertising campaigns by nature and the bottom line is that parents are talking about the need to take this issue much more seriously.

Victoria鈥檚 Secret may say publicly they are not purposefully advertising to young girls, but as parents we are pretty adept at spotting a falsehood, and this is one of those times that we need to agree with the characters in HBO鈥檚 Game of Thrones and repeat their stock phrase, 鈥淲ords are wind.鈥澨�听After speaking with the dad who prompted a boycott of the stores I realize the bottom line is we don鈥檛 want people writing on female鈥檚 bottoms at any age.

The company posted on its Facebook wall,听鈥淚n response to questions we recently received, Victoria鈥檚 Secret PINK is a brand for college-aged women. Despite recent rumors, we have no plans to introduce a collection for younger women. 'Bright Young Things' was a slogan used in conjunction with the college spring break tradition.鈥澨�

The furor began March 22 after Rev. Evan Dolive of Texas posted an open letter on his website chiding the lingerie retailer for its 鈥淏right Young Things鈥� line. He believed that no matter what the company line may be, the undies are aimed at tweens with phrases like 鈥淲ild鈥� across the butt. Dolive is the father of two, one is a daughter age three.

Dolive wrote:听鈥�I want my daughter (and every girl) to be faced with tough decisions in her formative years of adolescence. Decisions like should I be a doctor or a lawyer? Should I take calculus as a junior or a senior? Do I want to go to Texas A&M or University of Texas or some Ivy League School? Should I raise awareness for slave trafficking or lack of water in developing nations? There are many, many more questions that all young women should be asking themselves 鈥� not will a boy (or girl) like me if I wear a "call me" thong?"

Meanwhile, in Japan, 听a PR agency called听Absolute Territory PR听is听enlisting young girls to wear temporary tattoo ads on their thighs. The service launched in July 2012 and immediately boasted 1,300 walking billboards. To become a paid human thigh billboard requires:听being听a female over 18 with more than 20 connections on an SNS (Twitter, mixi, Instagram, etc.). To get paid, you have to wear a temporary tattoo for eight hours or more and post pictures of it to your SNS in at least two different places.

When I spoke with Dolive on the phone about the Facebook posting by Victoria鈥檚 Secret he said, 鈥淚鈥檓 not surprised. That鈥檚 really what I would expect them to say. But they鈥檙e talking out of both sides of their mouths here since their CFO made it very clear what he鈥檚 after.鈥�

Dolive is referring to a听Business Insider听report that quoted听Victoria鈥檚 Secret Chief Financial Officer Stuart Burgdoerfer as saying at a recent conference听"When somebody鈥檚 15 or 16 years old, what do they want to be? They want to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college, and that鈥檚 part of the magic of what we do at Pink."

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the magic of PINK,鈥� Dolive repeated in disgust. 鈥淔ine, let鈥檚 say 'Bright Young Things' is aimed only at college girls and then start the discussion from there about why we should not pressure girls into unattainable standards and believing that their worth is defined by their underwear.鈥�

He adds, 鈥淚鈥榤 getting calls and letters from parents who tell me that their middle school-age daughters come home asking for underwear from the PINK line because when they get changed for gym class they realize the popular girls are all wearing that line.鈥�

Since posting the letter, Dolive says he has been deluged with responses from every nation, 鈥淚鈥檇 say that over 95 percent were fully in support with only a few telling me if I didn鈥檛 like it I just shouldn鈥檛 buy it.鈥�

Dolive agrees that not only will he not buy it, but according to the emails and reactions to his letter, many other parents are going so far as to call for a boycott. That鈥檚 because his argument jibes with that of many parents who feel children are pressured to grow up too fast and it鈥檚 up to the parents to boycott, write letters, and put the brakes on marketing panties in candy colors and elementary school typefaces.

Amanda Cole Hill, mom of a daughter and local PTA activist in Norfolk, Va., saw and then forwarded Dolive鈥檚 posting to me. When I wrote back and said I鈥檇 be blogging the topic and asked for a comment she was quick to respond. 鈥淔rom what I have read they changed their tune when the backlash occurred and said it was meant for college girls,鈥� Hill said. 鈥淏ut initially it was for high school. Nonetheless, I don't think anyone needs underwear that says 鈥楥all me.鈥櫶� Seriously? Call me?