China - The New Scapegoat For Bad Corporate Judgement

Mattel, the world’s largest toy manufacturer, made its second recall within a month’s time and made a lot of noise about the fact that their supplier in China had used lead paint in 436,000 toys. Enough noise to try to hide the fact that it had to recall 18 million toys whose faults were nothing to do with China - it was the American design. The NY Times :

In a double-barreled announcement, the company said it was recalling 436,000 Chinese-made die-cast toy cars depicting the character Sarge from the animated film “Cars” because they are covered with lead paint.

At the same time, the toy maker said it was recalling 18.2 million other toys because their small, powerful magnets could harm children if swallowed. The magnetized toys were also made in China, but they followed a Mattel design specification.

• Is this recall because Mattel outsources to a country with different safety standards?
• Does the low cost of manufacturing in China = low stress if this is the toy company’s 17th recall in 10 years?
• Can PR always swoop in to save the day?
• Or is this a simple issue of faulty product design?

“No system is perfect,” Robert A. Eckert, Mattel’s chairman and chief executive, said in a conference call. “There’s no guarantee that we will not be here again.”

Hmmm. Maybe if Mattel had been at the 4A’s Planning Conference and heard Bruce Mau speak, it would be a bit more optimistic about the opportunities large companies have to affect positive change on a worldwide scale. Either way, we’d like to think that’s been a collaboration of debatable policies instead of simply saying, “China messed up again.”

[via Murketing]