The Oregon Partnership played a key role in getting Macy's department stores to remove a series of beer-related T-shirts from back-to-school advertising aimed at teens, the New York Times reported Oct. 16.

Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy's and Bloomingdales, pulled the "Beer Pong," "Beer: It's What's for Breakfast," and "I'm Working on My Six-Pack" shirts from its ads and youth departments in stores after a series of TV reports in Portland, Ore., featured interviews with outraged parents.

"If they want to sell those T-shirts, fine, but don't sell them in the back-to-school section," said Judy Cushing, head of the Oregon Partnership, a community anti-drug coalition.

Cushing said Federated's swift response after the TV report contrasted with their initially tepid reaction to complaints from the group. In announcing the decision to remove the offending shirts, Federated CEO Terry J. Lundgren wrote to Cushing that the T-shirts were clearly "inappropriate for underage customers."

In a similar incident last year, J.C. Penney was the subject of parent protests for selling beer- and liquor-themed shirts in back-to-school circulars and in the young men's section of stores.