He seemed like Prince Charming at the time, if a little on the cheesy side….but it turns out he poisons puppies AND little children.  Goodness, you didn’t even really mean to get married!  It was just the most efficient thing to do at the time.  But if you’re Purina or Mattel, who now find their brands inexorably linked to the concept of “made in China,” it turns out that what happens in Shanghai doesn’t stay in Shanghai after all. 

Now Mattel is scrambling to fix the lead-paint problem before the holiday season.  For business reasons, moving operations out of China is not going to happen; so no divorce, although some very public bickering before the counseling phase.  Blame and counter-blame.  It turns out that if you look beyond the recent lead-paint scare, most toy recalls are actually due to design flaws caused by the U.S. toy-manufacturers themselves.  “It’s not the “Made in China” label,” says one expert. “Even if it were made somewhere else, it was likely to have similar problems.” 

Past toy recalls bears this out.  According to Radar Magazine’s list of the 10 most dangerous playthings of all time, Mattel suffered from an absurd lack of judgment back in 1964 when it put out the Thingmaker, featuring toxic plastic goop which needed to be heated to 310 degrees on an open face fryer.   Likely grandmas worldwide had the common sense to avoid that one. 

But today, family members searching for safe toys don’t have a lot of options.   U.S.-made toys account for only 10% of toys, and are mostly “nostalgia” products made of wood which would be considered unacceptably boring by the 6-and-older set.   

What can brands linked to China do?  Like Hillary Clinton dealing with Bill’s bad behavior in 1998, be as dignified as you can, take steps to fix the problem, and move on together.  When Mattel was notified ealier this week about the filing of a lawsuit against them (along with 19 other companies) by the state of California, they kept to the righteous path by saying they “welcomed the attorney general’s involvement and added that it would be helpful for the entire toy industry.” 

Bottom line - Mattel needs to be seen as doing something about the lead paint issue by parents, but it also needs to pour on the Christmas advertising to up the demand factor from kids – all while keeping prices low.   No co-brand divorce, but let’s take separate cars to the holiday party this year. 

- Peggy Brown