
If baseball fields can name their stadiums after corporate sponsors who send millions in naming rights their way, why not hospitals? An Ohio hospital renamed itself Nationwide Children’s Hospital when the insurance company Nationwide wrote a $50 million cheque. They also named the lobby after two retailers who sent in seven figures. And now they're offering the name of its emergency and trauma unit to Abercrombie & Fitch, the sexualized clothier who's paying $10 million for the privilege.
And though the gift might go a long way toward improving the health of children, plenty of outspoken groups are furious the hospital would sell itself to a company many think is a glorified child porn ring. Some 15 organizations don't want the unit named after a company who has shirtless male models, who might still be in high school, greet store customers, or a company who began re-publishing its quarterly magazine that sells apparel with models who don't wear any.
Nevermind that UCLA named its children's hospital after toy company Mattel, and Rhode Island Hospital slapped Hasbro's name on its own kids' unit; nobody cried foul there. Of course it was Mattel who had to recall nine million Chinese-made toys that contain lead and magnets that could harm children if swallowed. Good thing they have their own children's hospital.

David, I'm tattling on Jossip (or whoever wrote this piece comparing the funding of Hasbro Children's Hospital to a potential temporary naming deal w/ A&F). The weak comparisons to Mattel and Hasbro completely miss the real, First Ammendment, issue. Even parents are tired of media sensationalizing the lead-level recall (because no children were physically harmed). So tying the claims of exploitation against A&F to the safety recalls by well meaning children's toy companies, that gave from shareholder profits to build those hospitals, is wrong. Do CHILDREN do your research? Hasbro Foundation built that children's hospital decades ago, before "naming rights" were sold like daily advertisements. In a world of google alerts, all of us must employ some journalistic integrity, even gossip pubs. Be responsible, not sensational. Your article disparrages innocents to make the point for A&F. That's not jool.