The once-popular—surely it isn’t still?—teenaged sexpot clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch is shelling out $10 million to build a new emergency room and trauma center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Now a group is speaking out against the idea of prominently naming the kids’ ER after the store, which the hospital has been hinting at in announcements. The reason the hospital is called “Nationwide Children’s Hospital” is because Nationwide Insurance gave it $50 million. Up next: the Budweiser End Zone Birthing Center, and then the American Apparel Teenaged Pregnancy Wing.
Research has shown a link between sexualized images of teens in the media and mental health problems in girls, including eating disorders, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression, according to the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
(Thanks to Darkwing Duck!)
“Group: Hospital should nix retailer name” [BusinessWeek/AP]
(Original photo before it got corrupted: D’Arcy Norman)
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if they donated the money, the hospital should be able to name it after them.. like all hospitals do
I think it shouldnt matter how attractive your kid is. Even ugly kids should be taken to the Emergency and Trauma center if necessary.
Naming rights is getting out of hand. In Miami now have the Arsht Center which used to be the Carnival Center — which is actually the performing arts center but you would never know by the name.
Dolphins Stadium used to be called Pro Player Stadium after the socks company. I refused to attend concerts at the Office Depot Center which is now the Bank Atlantic Center.
Shea Stadium in NY is not even going to keep that famous name, it will be sold out for bid when the new stadium is built. What next, Yankee Stadium no longer Yankee Stadium?
As the father of a daughter who’s been to both the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Nationwide Children’s ER, I don’t give a flying poop what it’s named. As bad as my experiences at Boston Children’s have been compared to what I’ve experienced at Nationwide, maybe Boston Children’s should approach Baby Gap for money…
Personally, I’d like to see the Trojan Condoms Teen Prego Department.
@tombo: I agree. Wasn’t there a Super Bowl game that was being held at the Coca Cola Stadium? I remember hearing ads about “Super Bowl at the Coca Cola Stadium, sponsored by Pepsi!”
I hate how my college (Maryland) is selling out too. Comcast center instead of Cole Field House. Chevy Chase Stadium instead of Byrd Stadium.
I hate it.
I’d really like to see “Trojan Condom’s Teen Prego Department.”
@tombo: I agree! I think there was a super bowl held at the Coca Cola Stadium. The Super Bowl is proudly sponsered by Pepsi!
I hate how my Alma Mater is doing the same thing. Comcast Center was the Cole Field House. Chevy Chase Bank Stadium was Byrd Stadium.
I hate it.
This is just like the narrative from Fight Club. Starbucks will help finance the new space shuttle, just watch and see!
Im ok with buying names, its like buying advertising. Besides the names have to come from somewhere…why not the company who paid for it? My old company was asking for donations to build a building, donatons over 50k were promised naming rights (things like confrence rooms, dormatories, etc)
the graphic for this story is awesome.
once the kids see that even THEY can’t fit into the clothing of A&F (bc they’re all fat, of course…) at least the trauma center is right there
so once the kids see that even they’re too fat for a&f clothing, at least the trauma center is right there to help.
I used to work at A&F. The company rakes in a ridiculous amount of money every year. Despite all the bad press they get, the company makes lots of charitable donations. A&F used to have TVs in every store, they were all donated to a children’s diabetes foundation. There is even a charity A&F bike race in Ohio, where the headquarters is located. If A&F donates money for an emergency room, giving the corporate name to the hospital is the least they can do.
So the protesters are saying “we like your money, just we dont like you.” How selfish.
ignore the double post, some glitch
might not be a great idea to have nudity on the Consumerist. i see nipples (gasp!)
All I got to say is that I SEE BOOBIE!
I found a boob in the picture.
Will the ER reek like cheap cologne for a three block radius?
If it’s a new place they are building, I don’t really have a problem with it.
I’m slightly uneasy about renaming a place that already exists and has a known name.
But I guess demolishing something then rebuilding an exact copy just to placate me isn’t a terribly efficient use of resources.
If it’ll help make health care more affordable in the U.S. then what the hell.. let them sell the naming rights for every fixture in the building for all I care.
Sports stadiums are different (and I’m from Chicago, where we’re currently really worried about the future of Wrigley Field). And as far as I’m concerned that stadium that the White Sox play at will forever be called “Sox Park”. But if I break my arm trying to balance my beer while catching a pop-up foul, I don’t care if they take me to BudPepsiTrojanHaliburtonComcast Hospital, as long as I get fixed up.
Please tell me that’s a Photoshop. It isn’t, is it?
I hate advertising in general but stuff like this bugs me even more. Sports fields fine, but a Hospital? I think naming parts of schools is going too far and now a Hospital? Yea i had to say it twice and it still sucks.
Nudity on the Consumerist?
Hmm…. I’m not sure if people are going to like this.
It is so messed up that this country has a problem with female nipples. There. I said it. We need massive, group therapy. /end rant
Boob has been censored! Your eyes will be made whole again by the grace of innocence. (Oh, I guess rant hasn’t ended after all.)
I can’t believe in the time it took me to get back to this story, someone has obscured the …err… point in the picture on the main site.
This post has been brought to you by:
The McDonalds Obesity Clinic
The MTV ADD Center
Ambercrombie and Fitch, the preferred store for members of NAMBLA. I can’t imagine a real man ever shopping there.
@humphrmi: Sure it might be affordable but what will you do when your son gets back all naked with an “AF” embroidered loincloth and acting very gay around you?
So next time I go into the ER, already feeling like shit, I get to look up and be reminded I’m A] unpopular and B] really out of shape?
If that hospital entrance smells like the shit fragrance they spray around the A&F entrance at the mall, I don’t care how fuckin’ sick/injured/close to death I am, I’m turning around and toughing whatever it is out at home. [Yes, actual hospital odor is preferable.]
For the record, I would totally give birth in the Bud Light End Zone Birthing Center. Then it wouldn’t look so weird when I try to spike the kid after successfully pushing him out.
Two words for what would be a major problem with corporate-sponsored hospitals:
Big. Pharma.
@sohmc: Why not the Prego Maternity Ward and Family Planning Clinic? The tagline writes itself, ya know…
“Paging Dr. Shirtless. Dr. Abdominals requires your assistance in the Sexy Ward. We have a code “Yowza!”.”
The Lindsay Lohan free clinic?
@Spaceman Bill Leah: I totally thought you said “Buzz Lightyear Birthing Center” and thought “Me too!”
If a company wants to donate the money to build a hospital, why should I complain? Does anyone complain about Rockefeller Center?
@jeffjohnvol: Umm, no, A&F is targeted more toward the college set. Hollister is the brand for the young ones, so NAMBLA might hang around there.
@EmperorOfCanada: Indeed, the less-attractive children may even need the services of a trauma center more. Send the pretty ones to the mall, where people can coo sympathetically over them and dribble dippin’ dots onto their wounds.
@Spaceman Bill Leah: In 1996, the Washington University (in St. Louis) School of Law was renamed the “Anheuser-Busch School of Law.” Didn’t last long.
@jeffjohnvol: If you mean “real men” you mean people who never leave their mom’s basement? You obviously have never been to college, or even high school since the brand is pretty popular in those demographics.
@Chris Walters: I’m with you 100% on your rant. However I read Consumerist at work. When they start grepping through the jpgs in my cache, and see the file with the word “kiddysexpot” in the name, and check to see what it’s about and find boobs, they might come asking me questions.
But yeah, I’m with you on it.
@ Tombo
Thank god it’s at least not called the Carnival Center. That has to go down as the worst naming choice ever. That said:
@ article.
I don’t see the problem here. I am annoyed by stadiums and tournaments and even opera houses constantly changing their names to suit the highest contributor but if it helps build a hospital….. who the hell cares? As far as “such and such study shows”. Please dont post something like that without placing a link to the collaborating material. Anyone can claim anything and run a skewed “study” to suit their goals.
“sexualized”??? did sex become bad again? What exactly is sexualized? Cleavage? Longing Eyes? Anything above the ankles?
Sorry, but this story has so many wrong things going for it in my mind that I will just move on to the other amazing content on the site.
Columbus. My old home town. How I miss you.
First thought. I don’t think posters of A&F models, clothed or not, are going to be plastered across the ER. I’m sure there aren’t bunches and bunches of posters for Nationwide in the halls of the rest of the hospital.
Second. What a bunch of loons for even thinking about it.
Third. There is no such thing as bad publicity. What a marketing coup to get Columbus’ name in the news.
Pretty soon our president will have to incorporate “Mountain Dew” in all of his speeches and we will be getting law degrees from Costco. It’s coming, people.
i’d rather see the 10million go towards giving children medical attention than into the shareholders pockets. i don’t care what company they name the children’s wing after. its still coming into existence with philanthropic intentions.
@SaveMeJeebus: My Soccer coach in highschool who was also my Pre-Cal teacher incorporated Mountain Dew into almost everything he did; not because he was being paid, but because he likes the drink so much.
I don’t think I would have a problem with a small plaque somewhere in the new center acknowledging A&F as the donor for the facility, but to name the center itself after A&F is tacky at best and gives the impression that the donation was a PR move more than it was for charity (which is probably not far from the truth).
Hey, if they are willing to build a new ER and all they want is their name on it what is the problem?
Nationwide paid $50million to put their name on the hospital. Then they laid off a bunch of people right afterwards. So who is the worse company?
As for body issues, EVERY woman has them. Get used to it.
HA, I though I was the only one who saw her tits eariler today on the picture, LMAO
Here in Orlando, the local cable company paid about a third of the costs of the new stadium, and will lose naming rights in 15 years. Better than having taxpayers fund the difference..
@Ariel.Sanders: everybody saw them. you’re not the only one with working eyes. they were kind of RIGHT their.
*there
This is really high on my I don’t give a shit scale it’s not even funny. They donated the money, and if the hospital wants to name it after them, they should be able to do that. What right do any of you including this group have to determine what another group names their place? Should I be able to tell you what to name your kid because I don’t like the name. Last time I checked this was still a free country, don’t like it, move to china.
@kelrod: So what if it was a PR stunt, it’s better than not getting the money at all. You’d rather them not help kids?