Mattel’s Sorry Apology

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 […]

Popularity: 50% [?]

Boycott Mattel

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 […]

Popularity: 100% [?]

Mattel’s Robert Eckert Plays By His Own Rules

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 […]

Popularity: 61% [?]

Can Mattel Lead the Way to Safety?

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 […]

Popularity: 67% [?]

Open Letter to Mattel CEO Robert Eckert

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 […]

Popularity: 78% [?]

Mattel’s Image Tarnished by Lead Paint

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 […]

Popularity: 66% [?]