Time Warner's subsidiary Warner Bros. Consumer Products Division is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world, generating about $6 billion annually. It features an array of popular character franchises—Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, Teen Titans, Powerpuff Girls, and many others. The company licenses these characters for production of branded apparel, toys, jewelry, housewares, games and collectibles.

While competitors like Walt Disney Co. had developed codes of conduct for branded consumer products produced in their global supply chain, Time Warner had not. As You Sow engaged the company in dialogue in 2006 and filed a shareholder proposal asking for development of a code and implementation plan. The proposal received a strong vote result of 26% of shares voted, and was one of the top 25 social issue votes of 2006 (First-year votes on such proposals are often in the range of 5% to 10%.) Soon after, the company agreed to develop a code.

As You Sow has met periodically with Time Warner to monitor implementation of its vendor code of conduct. The commitment by the company is notable in that it covers not only the company’s Warner Bros. consumer licensing division but the entire company’s supply chain. Given the sprawling nature of the media company (Time Inc., CNN, HBO, AOL, Warner Bros.) it will likely take many years to fully implement. The company reported that it had initiated supplier monitoring of its consumer licensing division by the end of 2007. Our monitoring of implementation will continue.