Mattel’s Sorry Apology
Posted on September 25, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Mattel’s very public, highly staged apology to China (yes, the whole nation) has garnered a lot of media attention, with reports calling the move “astonishing” and “extraordinary.” According to the Associated Press:
The world’s largest toy maker sent a top executive to personally apologize to China’s product safety chief, Li Changjang, as reporters and company lawyers looked on.
“Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys,” Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, told Li.
…On Friday, Debrowski acknowledged that the “vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China’s manufacturers.”
…In Beijing, Debrowski said, “we understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers.”
It’s true that some 17 million toys were recalled because of dangerous magnets, certainly a design flaw. But an additional 2 million toys covered in lead paint is no small number. And previous reports regarding the magnetic toys did not fault Chinese subcontractors anyway. So why the apology? Read more
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Speak Out Against Unsafe Imports
Posted on September 11, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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The government is seeking input from American consumers on the issue of dangerous imports. A press release on WebWire states:
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Boycott Mattel
Posted on September 7, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Mattel CEO Robert Eckert made the rounds of morning news shows after the first major Mattel recall of the summer basically saying “mistakes were made,” and clearly consumers were not going to hold a little lead paint against him. Mattel’s stock (MAT) barely reacted. (Note the major cultural difference between Eckert’s very typical American publicly-repent-and-all-shall-be-forgiven PR tactic versus the response of Cheung Shu-hung, the head of the Chinese company responsible for the lead paint, who committed suicide because he had lost face.)
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Mattel’s Robert Eckert Plays By His Own Rules
Posted on September 5, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Oh, Mattel. I held such high hopes for you. You seemed so different from the other toymakers. Maybe I bought into the hype of Mattel setting the gold standard for doing business in China. Maybe it simply stems from my childhood love of all things Barbie. Either way, CEO Robert Eckert’s attitude toward product safety tears it.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mattel has not conducted recalls in a timely manner in accordance with Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations because, apparently, Mr. Eckert thinks he is above the law:
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Dangerous Plastics
Posted on August 28, 2007 by Sophia
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A question frequently posed on this blog is “what is the cumulative effect of exposure to low levels of lead from a large array of products over a long period of time?” Unfortunately, we don’t really know. But to be entirely honest, I’ve never been too concerned with lead. My home does not contain lead paint. Thanks to legislation enacted in the 80s, lead has mostly been eliminated from my immediate environment. Yes, because of recent recalls and blogs like this one, I am learning that we still need to be concerned about lead. However, I haven’t worried myself about lead because my main concern recently has been dangerous substances that I, and my child, encounter much more frequently—chemicals found in plastics that are used for everything from food storage containers to baby toys.
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Get the Lead Out
Posted on August 24, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Dangerous levels of lead have been discovered in vinyl baby bibs — first by an Illinois grandmother and then by the Center for Environmental Health, which found levels as high as three times the allowed amount. The New York Times also hired a laboratory to conduct tests which yielded similar results. According to the article, the CPSC had the following reaction:
Officials from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates children’s products, said that they would prefer that there be no elevated levels of lead in bibs.
But their own recent tests of baby bibs on the market in the United States found that the lead, when present, was at levels low enough that a child chewing on or rubbing the bib would not get an unhealthy dose.
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Can Mattel Lead the Way to Safety?
Posted on August 16, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Mattel is recalling some 19 million additional toys, some due to lead contamination and most because of dangerous magnets. Again, experts in the industry note that Mattel sets the gold standard for safety in toy production…so what does that mean for everyone else? According to the New York Times:
“If I went down the shelves of Wal-Mart and tested everything, I’m going to find serious problems,” said Sean McGowan, managing director and the toy analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “The idea that Mattel — with its high standards — has a bigger problem than everybody else is laughable. If we don’t see an increase of recalls in this industry, then it’s a case of denial.”
“If Mattel, with all of its emphasis on quality and testing, found such a widespread problem, what do you think is happening in the rest of the toy industry, in the apparel industry and even in the low-end electronics industry?” said S. Prakash Sethi, a professor at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York, who has acted as an independent monitor of working conditions in Mattel’s factories for the last 10 years. “Everyone is going to be found with lots of dirty laundry.”
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Open Letter to Mattel CEO Robert Eckert
Posted on August 6, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Dear Mr. Eckert,
I am the mother of a two-and-a-half year old who loves Dora, Diego and Elmo. We have several of the items from the list of recently recalled Fisher-Price toys in our home at this very moment, although they were purchased before May 2007 and thus are not subject to the recall (but they are still being kept out of our daughter’s hands).
I have two questions to ask of you:
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Mattel’s Image Tarnished by Lead Paint
Posted on August 3, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Just days after the New York Times ran a story about Mattel, the world’s largest toy company, setting the “gold standard” for manufacturing in China, Mattel announced the recall of nearly a million toys due to the presence of lead paint. The recall included 83 different products made under the Fisher-Price name and based on popular Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer characters.
To their credit, Mattel acted swiftly to pull the dangerous toys, quarantining many before they even reached stores. The question remains, how was this allowed to happen? The Associated Press reports:
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Saying They’re Making Us Safer, While Actually Making Us Less Safe
Posted on July 31, 2007 by Maureen Keene
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Sound familiar??
Last week President Bush announced a new cabinet level committee charged with studying the import safety crisis and making recommendations within 60 days, according to USA Today.
“The American people expect their government to work tirelessly to make sure consumer products are safe,” Bush said after the first meeting.
Yes, but we can’t possibly expect them to do this on budgets that are half of what they were a quarter century ago when imported goods have recently reached a record $1.9 trillion.
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