Our executive director's letter to Hooters. (Our petiiton is now closed)

Dear Mr. Brooks and Mr. McNeil: I urge you to stop using naughty nurse imagery in your "National Hooky Days" ad campaign and in any other promotion for your restaurant chain. As you know, your television and website ads for this promotion feature "Nurse Ashleigh," who wants to provide a "Doctor's Note" so customers can take the day off to recover from "Basketball Fever" and enjoy a free appetizer. Ashleigh is, of course, not so much a nurse as an attractive female model in a short white naughty "nurse" dress, which opens to reveal some cleavage. This kind of imagery impedes nurses' efforts to persuade the public that nursing is actually a modern profession for college-educated women and men. We understand that it is a "joke," but it is one that the mass media has repeated hundreds of times over the last few decades, creating a damaging stereotype that nursing is all about female sexuality. One result is that real nurses have trouble getting the respect and resources they need to save lives. Please stop contributing to a work environment that encourages real nurses to play hooky--permanently. Thank you.