Mattel and China Differ on Apology

The Washington Post ^ | September 22, 2007 | By Renae Merle and Ylan Q. Mui

[JACKRUSSELL]

After weeks of uproar and suspicion about the safety of Chinese-made products, an executive of the Mattel toy company met with China's top product safety official yesterday to issue an apology. Just what the apology meant, however, was caught up in translation.

Mattel says that Thomas A. Debrowski, its executive vice president for worldwide operations, was in Beijing to repeat what the company had already said in Europe and the United States, that it was sorry for the recall of millions of toys, and that it was doing all it could to prevent further problems.

The Chinese press heard it differently. The state-run New China News Agency said Debrowski "apologized personally Friday to a senior Chinese official for the massive recall of Made-in-China toys due to design flaws committed by itself." Other media outlets said Debrowski apologized for harming the reputation of Chinese firms.

To an American ear, the news agency reports sounded as if Debrowski was making an apology for any blame placed on China.

In the United States, however, Mattel said in a statement that some reports of the meeting had been "mischaracterized."

When Debrowski said, "Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys," the company said he was telling Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang what had been said elsewhere, including that a majority of the problems had been associated with design issues, not Chinese manufacturers......

[JACKRUSSELL]

”Made in China” Ping.

(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Mattel shareholders obviously have been giving their misguided Board an earful. If I held their stock, I would be SELLING.

[texastoo]

I agree, I would be selling also. No Mattel toys ever again will be bought by this family.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Mattel is "dependent on Chinese industrial capacity for its toys," said Eric Johnson, a management professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, who has studied the toy industry's migration to China. "They have significant investment of their own capital" in the country "and don't want to lose it.

You got that right and that's why Mattel has to Keep on Trucklin' to Chi-Coms. Insulting the heroic leaders of the peoples of the freedom-loving democratic Peoples' Republic of China is punishable by no more cheap labor and the loss of all investment. After that, the toys will be made by Maotel.

Keep on truckling, useful idiots.

[biff]

This whole apology thing reminds me of the taped “confessions” of our GI POW’s during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

[donna]

Does Mattel know about:

fascism
fas·cism [ fá shìzzəm ] or Fas·cism [ fá shìzzəm ]
noun
Definition:

dictatorial movement: any movement, ideology, or attitude that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism

[TheBattman]

I have a question - Mattel changed its accusations from blaming China, to design flaws. So Mattel included Lead in their designs?

And they designed an overall unsafe product?

Nice... Mattel- go to...

[Adams]

I remember reading about this when Mattel voluntarily recalled these toys back in August.

It was the toys with magnets like polly pocket that were not designed well enough to hold the magnets in place. Something about newer high powered magnets that no one knew would ever be a problem until some kid swallowed two of the same type from a Magnetix construction set and died. I definately see that as a design problem, and not a manufacturing issue. If they had made those here in the US, they’d still be recalling them.

I think Mattel is still pretty PO’d that it’s vendors circumvented standards and allowed lead paint on some of the Fisher Price toys. Now, there’s a situation where if the toys were made here in the US, there’s no way any lead paint would ever get them.

So when I read of Mattel’s “apology” to China, I see that as having to do with the recalled toys with the magnets more so than toys with high leadlevels in the paint.

[Adams]

I remember reading about this when Mattel voluntarily recalled these toys back in August.

It was the toys with magnets like polly pocket that were not designed well enough to hold the magnets in place. Something about newer high powered magnets that no one knew would ever be a problem until some kid swallowed two of the same type from a Magnetix construction set and died. I definately see that as a design problem, and not a manufacturing issue. If they had made those here in the US, they’d still be recalling them.

I think Mattel is still pretty PO’d that it’s vendors circumvented standards and allowed lead paint on some of the Fisher Price toys. Now, there’s a situation where if the toys were made here in the US, there’s no way any lead paint would ever get them.

So when I read of Mattel’s “apology” to China, I see that as having to do with the recalled toys with the magnets more so than toys with high lead levels in the paint.

[Captainpaintball]

Parents that do not buy chinese made products for their children love their children more than those that do.

[Caipirabob]

Merry Christmas, shareholders...

[VaBthang4]

Oh please, we all know what happened.

Mattell apologized. Period.