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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| After 98 Years the Girl Scouts Get a Makeover |
| 2010-07-09 |
| Nearly 100 years old, The Girl Scouts of the USA say they're showing some signs of aging. "We heard that our logo looked a little tired, weathered, worn and discolored. Like it been out on the picnic table all summer," reveals Laurel Richie, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President at GSUSA. The organization says they're giving themselves a makeover, inside and out, in an attempt at revitalizing and re-energizing its brand to reach a new generation of girls. This week marks the first time in 30 years Girl Scouts have launched a national marketing campaign. Sharon Lee, Senior Brand Manager for GAUSA, says they're combating a limited and old fashioned public perception that Girls Scouts are only associated with "cookies, camping, and crafts." The organization hopes to broaden their image and show they do more. The most noticeable change is the new Girl Scout logo. Their distinctive trefoil mark, which also adorns their shortbread cookie, has gotten a makeover. Branding and design agency, Original Champions of Design, updated the logo with modern hairstyles, perkier noses, and longer, thinner necks. Lee says the new look has the seal of the approval from their Girl Scout focus groups. "The strength of the new logo is we've kept what's recognizable but we've given it a facelift and brought it in to 2010." The iconic Girl Scout color will also change - to a bolder green, and the font will be all lowercase -- in an attempt to make the logo feel more casual and approachable. Organizationally, the revamp is part of a "What Did You Do Today?" campaign. Its goal is to be more relevant to the lives girls are leading today. "We're not telling them how to spend their day but asking them to reflect on how they spend their time," says Richie. A staggering one out of every 10 girls participates in Girl Scouting -- but CEO, Kathy Cloninger says they're striving for more. "We have literally revamped our entire organization to appeal to that 90 percent of girls who aren't benefiting from the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. And with our new brand work, we think we have the right message at the right time." Most well known for their $700 million dollar cookie business, the Girl Scouts of American was founded in 1912 and boast 3.3 million girl and adult members worldwide. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 I wear Timberland Pro-K series Composite-toe safety boots and they're the most comfortable safety shoes I ever wore. I also like women. Ipso facto! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-07-09 23:38 |
| #11 Not quite the F150. I actually was a model in a department store catalogue when I was little- hence the disgust with use of industry standards of beauty for children and adults. I just think people look like what they look like, and its ridiculous the overemphasis placed female pulchritude at any age. And the societal buy in. Billion dollar industry directed at making people feel ugly and like they should wear these hooker boots or that eyeshadow. People look like what they look like. It is what it is, but it shouldn't dislocate a person sense of self or value, or supplant the life of the mind. Now, I don't have the tall lithe body of a size zero runway model as an adult. I am okay with that. I am average stature build, and such. There is nothing wrong with comfortable shoes, tofu chips and original Girl Scout Cookies of all variety. All have their place. But women's brains, I fear, are the cookies that get brainwashed with too much consumer hype, denigration to intellect, Cosmo Magazine and all that junk. Some women are stuck in perma girlhood, malibu barbieland style. And, yes, I buy shoes made in Europe, Brazil and Spain, which can be comfortable and attractive. |
| Posted by: Ford Maude Elle 2010-07-09 22:30 |
| #10 As long as they don't replace thin mints with organic tofu chips, I'll be ok with it. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2010-07-09 22:00 |
| #9 drink up! The "comfy shoes" remark is a joke my ex-sister-in-law, a lesbian, made herself. It's common knowledge among that crowd. Wallet chains, Subarus, and Flannel shirts are optional. See: Janet Napolitano and Elena Kagen. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-07-09 19:28 |
| #8 The Girls Scouts in my part of the world tend toward crafts and business. Despite having been a troop leader for two years (because nobody else would step up for trailing daughter #2's troop, not because of personal passion), I far prefer the girls' auxilliary of the Boy Scouts, who do all the things the boys do. I was unable to interest my troop or their mothers in anything related to hiking, camping, or making fires. I'm told that Girl Scout troops in the South are much more active outdoors, so perhaps its a Midwestern thing. Ford Maude Elle, if your sexy shoes aren't comfortable, you're wasting money. It is impossible to feel and be sexy when one is in pain. (F-150, right?) There is no reason a woman, or a man for that matter, cannot be both comfortable and attractive. I mean, have you seen the glasses the DoD issues? A slightly different style would still be effective, I promise! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-07-09 17:24 |
| #7 Ditto, I'm with you, in exactly teh same boat. Quit bitching over a year ago and faced the fact that my wife and I, plus our kids' Russian math tutor, are going to have the shoulder the burden of ensuring our elementary school-aged kids acquire the skills they need and have outlets to satsify their curiosity about science, art, history, etc. In effect, we're home-schooling our kids, and sending them to the local Socialization Center for 6 hrs of socialization skills training 180 days per year. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-09 17:16 |
| #6 I agree with you on most points LEX. With one big exception. It's not the schools fault the education system sucks, it's not the governments fault either. It is also no suprise that most scouting is sponsored by the local churches. Teaching our kids is the parents responsibility, period. The school and scouts provide a venue but without parental involvement it is a joke. My kids are getting a great education in a public school. Not because the school is so great but because we, ok my wife, sits with the kids every nite and goes over their homework and helps them to learn. Education is the parents responsability from start to finish. And I dont buy a bit of that crap that both parents have to work and we dont have time, bla bla bla. Parents trade their time educating their kids or just raising them for that matter, for a swimming pool and a new car every year. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2010-07-09 16:53 |
| #5 These organizations are extremely important, given the popular culture of the Big Stupid and the near-collapse of the public schools as vehicles for transmitting either basic or advanced skills (not to mention enlightened values and preferred modes of behavior--aka "character"). Whether Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, the nation would benefit hugely from efforts by a trusted, reputable, experienced youth organization to impart some or all of the following: -- a love of craftsmanship, of building/making stuff, of figuring out how things work -- initiative, drive, basic business / marketing sense, ie the core of entrepreneurship -- a deep love of this nation and of our land, and a deep appreciation for our historical legacy and institutional foundations If you haven't figured out where this is going, here's the punchline: our country's economy and the educational system supporting it are in danger of real, rapid and permanent decline. THe only way out is for Americans to re-learn how to build products and technologies here at home that can be sold around the world. We can do so IF we rediscover, and transmit to our daughters and sons, those near-forgotten yankee virtues of ingenuity, innovation, frugality/investment, practical application of scientific concepts, superior organization to get big things done superbly and ahead of time etc. Our joke of a school system won't get us there. It's up to families, communities, and social organizations like the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and thousands of local private-sector teaching organizations/tutors to teach what the culture of the Big Stupid and its dopey stepsister, the public schools, will not do. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-09 13:32 |
| #4 I am excited about the red neckerchiefs and the red covers on the manuals. |
| Posted by: Highlander 2010-07-09 13:22 |
| #3 Minds in the gutter. Elevate, people. Women and girls aren't just jokes. Predictabley, they are, however, are the last bastion where discrimination is approved, even celebrated. I constantly hear comments about comfortable shoes. WTF is wrong with being comfortable? Oh wait, women are supposed to contort themselves to look sexy for men at all times. Rantburg's own photos run toward pictures of a women wearing sexy, revealing or cute clothing or in a non-ridiculous pose? What about a picture of an average woman in workout gear? Or a suit without heels, hose, full makeup and jewelry. I guess these depictions of women aren't racy enough. Also, how about celebrating women's minds? cookies, camping and crafts...how about hostile negotiation, self defense against other people's assaholic children, and leadership combined with study skills? Ours is a country that uses underage barely legal models on the fashion runway shows. Some designers have begun to stop this practice, notably Calvin Klein *supposedly* It would be nice to see women treated as something other than a joke, and that starts with how our girls are raised to view themselves. |
| Posted by: Ford Maude Elle 2010-07-09 13:16 |
| #2 'Prosti-tot' clothing |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2010-07-09 08:58 |
| #1 The most important changeover will be to make their uniforms look more like the costumes used on Bratz dolls. "Slutty is the way for success for girls. The use of revealing clothing on underage girls is a steppingstone to excessive makeup and an upward career track. We are using Lindsay Lohan as the role model for girls." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-07-09 00:33 |