Wild, a girl scout from Asheville, N.C., set out in January with the goal of selling 12,000 boxes of cookies, enough to win a free week of Scout camp for her entire troop. Because her father, Bryan, works in Web site development, his first impulse was to have her advertise her mission online.
She did so, and it was not long before she found herself afoul of the Scouts’ national organization, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., which forbids Internet sales of cookies. The resulting stir — innovative third grader versus Scout leadership, online entrepreneurship versus the tradition of door-to-door promotion — has drawn publicity across the country, with coverage by national news organizations and many radio stations.
“It didn’t really dawn on us that we were doing something new and innovative,” Mr. Freeborn said. “The business community in Asheville is very active on Facebook andTwitter. We were surprised that we were the first to get noticed for doing this.”
Michelle Tompkins, a spokeswoman for the Scouts, says there are good reasons for the online ban, beginning with the familiar dangers that young girls can encounter on the Web. Beyond that, Ms Tompkins says, is the issue of fairness: local councils typically award prizes to girls for reaching certain levels of sales, and since all girls are limited to selling within their local areas, a campaign like Wild’s can overwhelm opportunities for other girls in town.
But the debate only begins there. The further question is what online “selling” means.
The Scouts had no problem with the YouTube video, shot by Mr. Freeborn, in which Wild bounced around on a couch and made the sales pitch: “Buy cookies! And they’re yummy!”
The trouble, Ms. Tompkins says, is that Wild posted an order form online along with the promotional material.
But Mr. Freeborn says that although his daughter took orders online, she did not break the rule, since she delivered the cookies and collected payment in person.
