Dear Sanrio:

Dear Sanrio Corporation:
From: The Arc of California


We, The Arc of California, are part of the nations oldest and largest association for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. We are writing to express our concern regarding your new product, Hello Kitty wine, and the marketing of such a product to an impressionable audience. We are concerned that promoting alcoholic beverages through an icon that has historically been marketed to children will glamorize drinking. The slogan used to introduce this product, Hello Kitty is All Grown Up, equates growing up with drinking. We believe this is a dangerous message you are sending to impressionable children, preteens, teens and young women. Additionally pairing the wine with charms and jewelry serves only to reinforce product promotion to an inappropriate target audience.

There is little difference between Hello Kitty “selling” wine and the historical case of Joe Camel “selling” cigarettes. The Federal Trade Commission charged that RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company promoted an addictive and dangerous product through a campaign that was attractive to those too young to purchase cigarettes legally. The FTC went further stating that the campaign promotes a product that causes serious injury, addiction and death (FTC May 28, 1997 Press Release). Given that the target audience for Hello Kitty is and has historically been young girls the connection can easily be made that this campaign, although not intended for young girls, will influence them directly.

We believe that promoting this product has the potential to increase adverse developmental outcomes for the young girls that are part of the Hello Kitty following. We strongly disagree with any product promotion that uses juvenile characters to promote adult products that are harmful to youth. Intended or not, the Hello Kitty wine promotes underage drinking by the very nature of the character branding and historic relationship with it’s consumers. We are saddened to see Hello Kitty promoting a product that ultimately has the potential to result in adverse outcomes for youth.



Send your letter to:

Sanrio, Inc.
570 Eccles Avenue
South San Francisco, CA 94080