U.S. Chamber Educates Youth

 

 

A tube of toothpaste. Name-brand tennis shoes. Designer handbags. Thirteen-year-old Mitchell Nolte incorporated a number of images of everyday products in an award-winning poster to show the prevalence of counterfeit goods as part of a contest sponsored by the Chamber.

 

The Chamber's Fight The Fakes poster contest, held in cooperation with Weekly Reader, asked students to design an original art piece to educate their peers, their communities, and consumers about the threats of counterfeiting and piracy. "Our efforts are not only focused on cutting off the supply of counterfeit and pirated goods, but also on cutting off the demand for those goods," says David Hirschmann, president and CEO of the Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC). "We can better shape and change attitudes about counterfeiting and piracy by reaching the consumers of tomorrow."

 

Nolte of Anniston, Alabama, will receive a family trip for four to Walt Disney World, courtesy of the Walt Disney Company. Nolte's teacher won a $500 American Express gift card. Fourteen other students around the country also won awards.

 

The Fight the Fakes contest appeared as part of a special Weekly Reader anti-counterfeiting and piracy curriculum developed in conjunction with GIPC. The curriculum, including lessons on how to write to congressional members, reached 1.2 million middle school students and 36,000 teachers in 12,000 schools in Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

 

For more information, go to www.thetruecosts.org/.