MADD TAKES ON CLOTHING CATALOG

NEW YORK - Abercrombie & Fitch's latest magazine-catalog combines hot
back-to-school fashions with drinking games and recipes for hard-core
cocktails like the "Woo-Woo" and the "Brain Hemorrhage."

Way uncool, says the head of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

She bashed the trendy clothier for encouraging bad behavior that many of
its customers aren't even old enough to do.

"This catalog is an abomination," MADD President Karolyn Nunnallee said
Friday. "They are a company that is in a position to influence, and whether
or not they are making a profit they have a responsibility and that
responsibility is not to promote unsafe behavior."

About a million copies of the catalog, touted as part magazine, was
distributed about two weeks ago in the company's 165 stores and by
subscription.

The retailer admits it went too far in an A&F Quarterly story titled
"Drinking 101."

"In retrospect, the company feels that it should have initially provided
balance in that story," said Lonnie Fogel, a company spokesman at its
Reynoldsburg, Ohio, headquarters.

The two-page story gives directions for "creative drinking" that students
can substitute for the "standard beer binge," including drinks called
"Woo-Woo" and the "Brain Hemorrhage."

The catalog features photos of muscled, sometimes shirtless men with
fresh-faced women - all in Abercrombie fashions. It also includes stories
on travel, book and film reviews, advice for heading back to school and an
article on campus streaking.

Nunnallee wants Abercrombie to discontinue distribution of the 215-page
catalog, issue a letter of apology to everyone who received it and devote
at least one page in the next four issues to underage drinking and drinking
and driving.

For now, she'll have to settle for warning stickers affixed to catalogs not
yet distributed and postcards to subscribers with the same message, which
also appeared on the company's Web site.

The stickers say, in part: "We don't want to lose anybody to
thoughtlessness and stupidity. For some, part of college life includes
partying and drinking - be smart and be responsible."

Fogel said the catalog "aims to be a chronicler of the American college
experience today" and that experience, at least for some, includes alcohol.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)