Most people don’t trust most companies. Let’s be honest about that. We’ve been trained for decades to distrust companies because they fail to act like groups of humans rather than lawsuit fearing entities.
Ty, the toy company responsible for the popular Beanie Babies dolls, is now marketing “Sweet Sasha” and “Marvelous Malia” dolls.
The first lady’s office said Friday Ty was out of line. “We feel it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes,” said a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama in a statement.
And how does Ty respond?
A Ty representative told CNN the company generally avoids naming dolls for “any particular living individual,” because doing so might interfere with how kids use their imaginations to play with them. But they wouldn’t reveal the source of their inspiration for the new figures, telling CNN that information relating to the development of the company’s merchandise — including how it comes up with products, product names, and trademarks – is proprietary.
Are you kidding me? Either own it or don’t do it. Anyone with at least one eye and a marginally functional brain can see right through this silly protectionism language. Just take a look and the pictures and tell me these dolls don’t have anything to do with the Obama girls.
And now, as a parent of a two year old who would probably dig these dolls, not only am I not buying, I’m so insulted by their response I’m on the look out for Ty toys to avoid. Genius program there, Ty.
