Posted by: SoCal Muchacha | September 5, 2007

Mattel announces THIRD recall due to lead: Barbie accessories/Bongo Band toys/Geo Trax Locomotive toys

mattel.jpgYesterday Mattel announced it’s THIRD recall in just over one month (8/2/07: Fisher-Price Recall Notice (Lead Poisoning)/Links to info/China involved AGAIN!, 8/14/07:Another Mattel recall: lead paint and powerful, loose magnets) due to “violation of lead paint standard”. The whole recall/China/lead scenario kind of makes you want to get back to having the kids play with your empty cardboard boxes and creating parades with pots and lids as musical instruments, eh?

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Added 9/6/07: Here’s the video clip I mention in my comment (3rd one below). Quite telling in regard to how the bottom line ($$$) is ALWAYS going to outweigh health and safety…sigh.

Posted in American Bullie, CNBC, China, Dick Cheney, Don Imus, Erin Burnett, Fisher-Price, Marc Broussard, Mattel, NY Dept. of Agriculture and Markets, Sublime, The Tonight Show, Wal-Mart, celebration, family, health, lead paint, life, recall, television, toys, video, wheat industry

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Responses

I know… why don’t we simply make our own toys (food, pet products, car fuses, toothpaste, etc…), here in the United States? Yes, they might be a little more expensive, but they will also be less likely to kill someone. The money spent on its manufacture will stay here in the good ole US of A, instead of being given to China so that the U.S. company can make a little extra profit. Americans will have manufacturing jobs again (not everyone is made for high-tech!), and the economy will move along faster and it will also be more stable.

The U.S. companies, like WalMart, are probably pushing the manufacturer’s payments lower and lower, and they need to make money too. As a remedy, they end up finding cheaper (e.g. more dangerous) materials to work with.

Tell the “U.S.” companies that ‘Made in China’ is hazardous to your health and don’t buy anything that is made there (stay out of WalMart, for example). If any substitute can be found that is still made here (the United States), buy it!

And if you do buy something that is ‘Made in China,’ wait for the recall (about a month?) before using/eating it.

Is ‘Made in America’ really all too expensive?

By: Marc Plante on September 5, 2007
at 3:02 pm

There’s a branding theology that supports the activities referenced in the last response, which allows for companies like Mattel to define an ‘it’ of brand that’s somehow separate/above/not responsible to the operations of its business. This latest crisis reveals that the who, what, where, when, and why of making things can and should matter to how companies perform, since they can become very relevant to if and why consumers buy things. Will this be a wake-up call to Mattel (and other businesses)? I wonder. I wrote about it in some detail on DIM BULB, at http://dimbulb.typepad.com, if you’d like to check it out. Thanks!

(***I/SoCalMuchacha edited the link to the Dim Bulb blog since it wasn’t working. :))

By: Jonathan Salem Baskin on September 6, 2007
at 5:00 am

Unfortunately I don’t know that it’s a wake-up call to anyone other than consumers, and while they get upset and throw their hands up in the air, there usually isn’t much follow-through. And businesses, sheesh, if you think THEY are going to think about much more than the almighty dollar, think again.

This video clip of Erin Burnett (CNBC) espouses EXACTLY the viewpoint of big business AND the need that Americans have for the lowest prices possible–health and sacrifices of our country and those who manufacture items, be damned! Soooo disappointing and frustrating.

***The video clip won’t embed in this comment, so I’ll add it to the original post.***

By: SoCalMuchacha on September 6, 2007
at 8:37 am

To the above who says making our own goods would be a little
more expensive…a little more expensive my butt! lol
I would love to be able to afford to buy USA made goods but bottom line is -
We have to pay wages way higher than other countries. So the cost goes up. Then people are paying more for NEEDED goods, so minimum wage people are screwed until the next pay increase, then the cost of goods goes up again. It’s an endless cycle of capitalism at it’s worst.

And for the lead thing…didn’t the Chinese get the memo that lead = bad??? I mean are they that far behind on the WHO (World Health Organization) mailing list???

By: djdavi on September 15, 2007
at 10:10 pm

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