UPDATE: Saturday, February 22
Tanuja Janernauth and Alison Kennis were reseased from jail at around 7AM this morning on an I-bond, after being charged with criminal trespass, a class C misdemeanor. Read through the comments section of this story for breaking updates.

CHICAGO, FRIDAY, FEB. 21
7:30 PM

Two student activists, Tanuja Jagernauth and Alison Kennis, were arrested late this afternoon at advertising company Leo Burnett’s downtown headquarters, after the women entered the building to conduct a ‘people’s inspection’ of Burnett. Student activists have charged the advertising giant with war profiteering for it’s role in creating the U.S. military’s ‘Army of One’ advertising campaign, which has aggressively targeted Black and Latino youth for army recruitment.

Student anti-war activists say that Burnett's add campaign is fundamentally deceptive – that the army is not a hip, cool alternative career choice where one can express oneself as an individual, like the Army of One ads imply, but rather a quick route to the morgue. The activists charge that as the government continues to divert money from education to defense, army recruiters increasingly outnumber college recruiters in the vast majority of high schools in low-income and minority communities, where youth unemployment is at its worst since 1971.

The students are demanding that the federal government spend public funds for schools and jobs, not for war and warmongering through high-powered, expensive ad campaigns like Burnett’s.

Leo Burnett has hired Cartel Creativo in San Antonio to help market the Army to Latinos, and has enlisted Muse Cordero Chen & Partners in Los Angeles to help target African Americans for recruitment. Student groups in those cities staged solidarity actions at those companies’ sites on Friday, as well, and are planning to continue to target Burnett and its partners, plus military recruiters, JROTC/ROTC offices, and other youth war profiteers in the future.

After a short rally at the State of Illinois building, a contingent of more than one hundred area high school and college students arrived at Burnett headquarters shortly after 4PM, and made efforts to gain access to the building through several different entrances to conduct a ‘people’s inspection.’ Jagernauth and Kennis were able to gain entrance, where they were promptly arrested; a large contingent of students subsequently were able to access the main lobby of the building, where they attempted to ‘reverse’ the arrests. Picketing outside the building went on for at least a half an hour, and police were forced to wait until well after the action concluded to remove the two women.

Jagernauth and Kennis have been taken to Chicago police department First District headquarters at 1718 S. State St., where students have gathered to provide jail solidarity. According to the 1st District desk sergeant, both women will remain in custody until ‘their fingerprints clear’, a process that could take at least several hours – and possibly much longer.

Speakers at Friday’s action includeD pardoned Death Row inmate Aaron Patterson, who issued a stinging indictment of the Bush administration push for war. Other speakers included a local military veteran from Veterans for Peace, who urged students to continue to educate their peers about the horrors of war. Youth from groups that include Generation Y, the Southwest Youth Collaborative, the University of Illinois-Chicago, the University of Chicago, Columbia College On the Ground, Whitney Young High School, the Not In Our Name Youth and Student Committee, and ANSWER/Chicago helped build for Friday's action.