Supermarket Porn? Checking Out the Checkout Line

CNSNews.com ^ | 3/02/01 | Michael L. Betsch

[kattracks]

(CNSNews.com) - Along with the chocolate bars and batteries at supermarket checkout counters, shoppers and their young children have a clear view of sexually explicit tabloid newspapers and magazines, according to the American Decency Association (ADA).

According to ADA President Bill Johnson, grocery store chains nationwide are selling "explicit descriptions of the sex act" in their stores, and he wants it stopped.

In Johnson's most recent letter to 522 U.S. grocery chains nationwide, he urged them to adopt a policy regarding the display of offensive material. Either cover it up or remove it, he repeated in the 15th letter he has sent to grocers over the past two years.

Johnson said the envelopes in which he enclosed his letters included a label warning of "graphic" material inside. That graphic material included five paragraphs from an article in the February, 2002 issue of Cosmopolitan. Johnson did it, he said, to make a point - that the magazines' content is "just out-and-out pornographic. I mean it was very, very explicit verbiage."

Johnson's letter stressed the fact that sexual content found in the February issue of Cosmopolitan is not just an isolated occurrence. That kind of material, he said, is what Cosmopolitan features in its most prominent stories, with cover headlines to match.

Johnson said "each and every" local grocery store chain makes its own decisions on how to display racy women's magazines and tabloids, and therefore, each and every grocery store chain can take action.

"Some of these store chains are so large that you aren't necessarily going to get a compliance at every store because that's a huge undertaking to monitor all those stores," Johnson said. "There are some I think that are very vigilant, but there are others that aren't and sometimes they can stutter and falter themselves along the way."

However, Johnson said approximately 40 grocery store chains have written back to him in support of the ADA's quest to remove or cover up material that might offend patrons and their children at the checkout line.

One such store that the ADA's website commends for "taking positive steps" is the Florida-based supermarket chain, Publix. That chain, said Johnson, has placed "blinders" over offensive magazines at the checkout counters or else moved them to the magazine aisle.

According to Publix spokesperson Lee Brunson, "The contents of magazines have always been a question in our stores, sometimes from customers." He said concern has typically arisen in the past when parents standing in line with little kids would see the covers featuring revealing photos and explicit headlines.

"In the past, whenever a customer complained about a magazine cover or the content of a magazine cover, our management team would just pull that magazine and put it in a less visible place," Brunson said.

Today, Brunson said, Publix offers its store managers specially designed magazine blinders that cover an objectionable picture, but not the headlines.

"If a manager receives a request or a complaint from a customer, they have the opportunity now to just slide that plastic cover over the magazine which covers only the picture," Brunson said. "They don't have to pull it off of the shelf or do anything else with it."

Johnson said it all comes down to "good faith" when it comes to asking supermarkets to shield the explicit materials from customers and their young children.

"We don't feel that there's much help available through legislation, and the stuff is protected by the First Amendment," Johnson said. "And so, since it's protected, these places can basically do whatever they want to with this."

Paul Luthringer, a spokesperson for Cosmopolitan publisher Hearst Magazines, said ADA's efforts have had "little effect" on sales. "In fact, since 1998, Cosmo's circulation has remained strong, currently at 2.75 million-per-month," he said.

According to Luthringer, Cosmopolitan has endured "four circulation rate-based increases during that time and numerous newsstand price increases." However, he said, "ADA chooses to ignore all of those facts in their propaganda."

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[weikel]

American Deceny Assocation sounds like those Legion of Decency commies who got all the old movies censored( and people hated them then too people in the old days liked violent raunchy movies as much as they do now).

[hchutch]

The American Decency Association is at it again, folks.

Let's stick up for Cosmopolitan, and hope that Cosmo readers will stick up for Howard!!!