In Richard Louv's "The Bogeyman Syndrome," he speaks of Halloween transforming from a holiday for kids into a national holiday for adults—particularly when the local stores display jack-o-lanterns, paper masks, glow-in-the-dark bottles, and trick-or-treat bags, emblazoned with logos of beer and alcohol manufacturers.

So what happened to the days of kids roaming the streets with pillow sacs full of treats, the days when "tricks" were no more devious than toilet paper and eggshells on the pavement? Louv says, "Somebody stole Halloween, took it away in a plain brown paper bag and won't give it back."

That's why the Center on Alcohol Advertising is telling beer and liquor advertisers, "Hands Off Halloween!". This national effort asks the beer industry to stop promoting beer with Halloween themes that appeal to children. The Center is a member of the Coalition for America's Families and works to export the issue to groups as diverse as the Association of Junior Leagues International and the National Parent Teacher Association. Hands Off Halloween advocates organize press conferences throughout the country, write letters to their local newspaper editors, and ask liquor and grocery store owners to refrain from using beer advertisements that feature Halloween symbols.

This year, before the Halloween season even began, Laurie Leiber, director of the Center on Alcohol Advertising, discovered what many consider a nasty little "trick;" but she didn't have to go door to door to find it. It's Mattel's Barbie Pretty Treasures accessory collections, available in toy stores across the country.

Picture this: A Barbie picnic basket and dining set, complete with ice buckets, large wine goblets and. . . wait a second. Is that what it looks like? Could Barbie be hitting the bubbly?

No way, says Mattel. The glasses may look like just like wine goblets, but the bottles are "clearly labeled" as cider and sparkling water.

But something smelled rotten to the folks at Center for Science in the Public Interest, who sent an alert to advocates like Leiber. Leiber recognized it as just the type of alcohol advertising aimed at children that the Center works to eliminate. Although she didn't have the time nor the resources to tackle the Barbie debate with full force, she got the word out through several listservs, including the Connect for Kids discussion group.

Leiber asked KidsChamps to check their local toy stores for Barbie Pretty Treasures collections. "I knew if they agreed with me that it was a confusing message," Leiber says, "then they could talk to managers who would send them back to Mattel."

After receiving Leiber's message on the listserv, Connect for Kids Debbie Counsellor felt strongly enough to go to her local Toys'R'Us and look for Barbie Pretty Treasures collections. Counsellor didn't find the items, but she did find a network of child advocates through the Internet. "It's a good way to touch base," Counsellor says.

Many other KidsChamps responded to Leiber's alert. One member vowed to contact friends and relatives around the country to go to their local toy stores and demand that the Barbie Pretty Treasures collections be removed from the shelves.

Robin Rieske, a Prevention Specialist with the Office of Alcohol and Drug abuse programs in Vermont, received Leiber's message via e-mail from an associate. "I always encourage parents to go into local stores and talk about the advertising," says Rieske, who uses the Internet to research alcohol advertising policies around the country. "That's how changes are going to be made—not by laws alone."

Rieske knows kids can take a stand against alcohol advertising, too. A Vermont program called Operation Storefront, sponsored by the state liquor control board and the department of health, offers kids training on the dangers of alcohol and tobacco and the advertising techniques used to hook them. As part of the program, kids enter stores to see what kind of ads are displayed and where they are placed. Local merchants get the message from young people, just as they get it from concerned parents.

It's not the first time that Leiber and the Center have made connections through the Internet. Margaret Dalton started her own Hands off Halloween campaign in San Diego, California, after hearing about it through Connect for Kids. Dalton has since created a Web page for her new project, the Information Clearinghouse on Children.

"What the Web allows us to do," Dalton says, "is act like big corporations. We can communicate instantaneously, share information, and keep track of what others are doing at a minimum cost." The Web site receives about 6,000 hits a month. According to Dalton, it makes a big difference: "That's 6,000 phone calls we couldn't have made."

Through the Connect for Kids discussion group, Leiber heard from many people who thought the marketing was outrageous—and others who thought she was overreacting. But she defends her position: "It's very important for us to recognize how ever-present, carefully crafted, and insidious it [alcohol advertising] is."

The letters and phone calls to Mattel did not go unheeded. In Mattel's letter to Leiber, the corporation concedes to revising the labels, and promises to be more sensitive in the future. Says Leiber, in a message to KidsChamps, "More important than the new words on the labels is the fact that Mattel felt the company had to do anything."

Leiber considers it a partial victory, and more importantly, a lesson in consumer citizenship. Says Leiber, "We have a responsibility to speak up when we think manufacturers are putting our children in danger."

It's something to think about before the holiday season begins.