In my last post, I wrote about the Baby Einstein refunds. Now Susan McLain, General Manager of Baby Einstein sets the record straight:
For the past several years, Baby Einstein has been under attack by propaganda groups taking extreme positions that try to dictate what parents should do, say and buy. Our philosophy has always been to focus on creating products that parents and babies love, and to not get sidetracked and pulled down into their street fight.Unfortunately, with Susan Linn’s latest stunt, we cannot be silent any longer. Linn’s obvious dislike for Baby Einstein has now turned into a sensational, headline-grabbing publicity campaign that seeks to twist and spin a simple, customer satisfaction action into a false admission of guilt. This is clearly not the case.
Linn’s moves are carefully crafted to prey on parental guilt and uncertainty. This time, she began by asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to go after Baby Einstein because, she said, we claimed that Baby Einstein was educational. But we do not make any such claim – and the FTC brought no action.
Not content to rely on the judgment of the federal government, her attacks continued and escalated despite the fact that her assertions have no merit.
That’s where we are today. However, we took a very different approach. We strongly believe that, unlike Linn, our consumers find value in our product, and rather than continue to fight with her, we decided it to leave it up to those consumers. That is why we extended a refund policy that was already in place. Although she would like to claim otherwise, there is nothing extraordinary about a company’s willingness to stand behind its product. To the contrary, it is the strongest possible show of confidence in it.
Baby Einstein announced this offer in a press release issued on September 4, 2009, which was largely ignored by the media. Linn’s latest public relations blitz simply distorts the facts and misleads the public. In the end, this smear campaign has everything to do with Linn trying to generate ink and funding for her cause, and not about the value that consumers find in our product.
Thank you for letting us set the record straight.
Sincerely,
Susan McLain
General Manager, The Baby Einstein Company
Too much ado over cartoons. Isn’t it easier to just turn off the tv if you don’t what’s on it? Diba?
Usdating says
January 11, 2010 at 12:36 amNice piece of text I must say. Is it oke for me to make a translation in Dutch with a obvious link to this article?
Mydigitalfamily says
November 26, 2009 at 5:22 amI am a local psychiatrist with strong community ties who is following a widely-covered story (that you are not covering) with great interest, since I am an expert on violence, kids, parents, and technology and have a strong commitment for mixing these successfully. Please visit my http://www.mydigitalfamily.org to get a fuller picture.
My reaction to the story is that it is incredibly positive news in the world of children, parents, and media/technology, etc. It has huge implications for child development and family life and the evolving relationships of kids and families with media companies in popular culture. It is a BIG BIG story!. I am a child psychiatrist and expert in this field and in the process of publishing a book Kids, Parents, and Technology: An Instruction Manual for Young Families – ETA 1 month or so — I applaud those who fought so hard and Disney.
Mom-Friday says
October 28, 2009 at 11:03 pmMy kids and I actually like Baby Einstein, and Little Einstein series, we have the whole Box Set of the first issue! 🙂 to each his own lang talaga, and parents can simply choose not to buy or watch…you inspired me to post some of our favorite baby videos, abangan! 🙂
neva adelane says
October 29, 2009 at 9:08 amhi michelle! thanks for dropping by 😀 i actually thought of what i watched when i was growing up while i was reading the NYT article. i don’t think nakasama naman sakin ang rainbow brite at he-man no? haha! see you around!