Company of the Day, current edition: Mattel.
Today’s Company of the Day is Mattel.
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These days, Mattel would surely love it if consumers focused on Barbie’s platinum hair rather than on the lead that has been found in some Mattel toys. The bad news has come in waves for the world’s top toy maker in recent weeks. The company recalled one million toys from its Fisher-Price brand after it discovered that the toys may contain lead paint. It later recalled nearly half a million toys related to the movie Cars, but that was nothing compared to the 18 million toys — including Barbie, Polly Pocket, and Batman figures — that it recalled over worries about potentially dangerous small magnets. Plaintiffs have filed a class action suit over the recalls, but the bigger problem stands to be with parents’ trust. Most US parents hold to the highest possible standards for protecting their children, and it will be bad news indeed for Mattel if those parents decide that its safety record is unreliable.
The recalls are part of a larger trend of product safety problems for goods manufactured in China. The issue arose earlier this year when pet food made in China poisoned some dogs and cats in the US, and it has only grown worse since the Mattel recalls. The fallout has included executions of, and suicides by, implicated officials in China, along with a growing tide of unease among Americans about the quality of goods made in China. Yet China also turns out some of the finest manufactured goods in the world, everything from electronics to luxury furniture, for companies based elsewhere. But as James Fallows of The Atlantic has pointed out, most Chinese manufacturers achieve this standard only when they are held to it by their customers abroad. Whether Mattel will bear all the blame for its product recalls, or whether some of it will be fixed permanently on Chinese factories, remains to be seen.
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P.S. — If you’re interested to read more of what James Fallows has written on this, start here.
Category: Company of the Day, Entertainment2 Comments so far
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There is no real danger from the lead in the Mattel toys. It seems blown out of control by the media. The reason your kid has so many toys is because of the fact that they are made in China and so cheap. Mattel will do the right thing in recalling the toys in question, but parents should not over react. Other toy companies have much less quality control and I would buy a Mattel toy for my gradkids before any other.
To Phil La Puma: Mattel has swung into full damage-control mode, both by making what seem like wide recalls (to make sure no iffy toys get left out of the recall) and by taking out full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal and the like. With the latter move, they’re trying to copy the — well-justified — success of Johnson & Johnson’s actions after the scare over poisoned Tylenol: pre-emptively take everything rumored to be dangerous off the shelves, even if the rumors are false, and make a point to display your seriousness over the gravity of the situation. So far, I give Mattel pretty good marks.
Just to clarify a point that may not have come out clearly in the original article: the issue is not whether Mattel’s toys *actually* posed a danger to American kids. The issue is whether Mattel’s toys were *perceived* to pose a danger (they were) and whether Mattel is *perceived* to be doing enough about that danger (so far, so good).