Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are locked in a battle for recruitment, and Girl Scouts accuse Boy Scouts of stealing potential members.
The girls organization says that the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, have been unfairly recruiting girls into their ranks, essentially attacking their membership base, amid declining enrollment in both groups, according to a legal brief.
The Boy Scouts have allowed girls to join their programs since 2018, “after years of family petitions” for boys and girls to venture out and train together and for girls to have the opportunity to to become Eagle Scouts, the highest honor bestowed by the organization.
But Girl Scouts say BSA’s new recruitment is “very damaging” to their own brand and that the “offense” has created a wave of confusion among parents who have mistakenly signed their daughters by the wrong organization.
Disgrace to scouts?
In 2018, Girl Scouts sued BSA for trademark infringement, alleging that the boys’ organization used Girl Scouts images and slogans, including the terms and phrases “scout,” “scouting,” and “scout me in.” to their advertising.
“As a result of the Boy Scout offense, parents have mistakenly enrolled their daughters in Boy Scouts thinking it was Girl Scouts,” said Girl Scout lawyers, who added that this had not been a problem before of 2018, when the change occurred. first fact.
Last month, the Boy Scouts called the lawsuit “totally useless” and asked a judge to drop it.
On Christmas night, the Girl Scouts filed documents in federal court to challenge the move, saying BSA intended to create confusion about the organizations among the recruits.
“The Boy Scouts knew for decades that the use of terms as scouts or exploration would be confusing unless they clearly identified the sponsor of the services offered under these brands, but they went ahead and used those terms anyway,” he said. he said in the archive Thursday. “The rampant confusion and damage to the scouts’ brand was the intended and expected result.”
BSA issued a statement in response, in which it told CBS News that young people join the organization for a variety of reasons and do not usually join by mistake.
“Implying that confusion is a predominant reason for their choice is not only inaccurate (without any legally admissible instance being offered in this case), but the decisions of more than 120,000 young girls and women who Cub Scouts or BSA Scouts have joined since the programs were available to them, ”the BSA said.