FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer de Vallance (202) 395–6618
Laura McDowell (508) 390–2468
September 24, 2002
The TJX Companies, Inc. Includes Drug Prevention in Back-to-School Promotions
Leading Off-Price Retailer Joins National "Anti-Drug" Campaign
(Washington, D.C.)—Back-to-school shoppers in more than 1,500 retail stores nationwide have received youth drug prevention information through a new partnership between The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
The TJX partnership is part of a larger effort launched by ONDCP's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign last fall to enlist corporate America in youth drug prevention. Businesses are encouraged to provide in-kind donations of goods and communications services and financial contributions to underwrite advertising, programs and materials. Through collaborations with businesses, the Media Campaign is reaching more youth and parents with anti-drug messages and information in more places, more often, and more persuasively.
TJX is supporting the Media Campaign with a cause-marketing program through four retail chains and employee education. Since the beginning of the back-to-school season, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, and A.J. Wright have promoted anti-drug messages to parents and youths through in-store signage and by directing visitors to the Media Campaign's flagship website, TheAntiDrug.com. This site is devoted to providing parents with the most up-to-date youth drug prevention information. Customers will also receive important information on raising drug-free kids through T.J. Maxx and Marshalls direct mail pieces and newspaper advertising. In addition, parents can find drug prevention information on tjmaxx.com and marshallsonline.com. For teens, T.J. Maxx is holding a national "What's Your Anti-Drug" essay contest on maxxlounge.com.
"The TJX Companies are helping to ensure that youth and their parents continue to find anti-drug information and resources where they live, work, shop and play," said ONDCP Director John P. Walters. "We welcome the company's involvement in the national effort to reduce substance abuse among youth."
"The anti-drug cause is important for both our customers and associates and fits well with our overall mission of helping families and kids," said Ted English, President and CEO of The TJX Companies, Inc. "Partnering with the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign gives us an opportunity to use our extensive retail network to add dimension to youth and parent outreach on this critical issue in communities nationwide."
TJX is the leading off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the U.S. and worldwide. The Company operates 704 T.J. Maxx, 608 Marshalls, 134 HomeGoods and 59 A.J. Wright stores in the United States. In Canada, the company operates 140 Winners and 11 HomeSense stores, and in Europe, 115 T.K. Maxx stores. More information about TJX is available on the Internet at www.tjx.com.
In 1998, with the bipartisan support of Congress and the President, ONDCP created the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, an effort designed to educate and empower youth to reject illicit drugs. Counting on an unprecedented blend of public and private partnerships, non-profit community service organizations, volunteerism, and youth-to-youth communications, the Campaign is designed to reach Americans of diverse backgrounds with anti-drug information and resources.
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