Friday, January 23, 2009

Dollmaker Denies Obama Girls Are Inspiration

The Real Obama Girls

CNN.com reports that Ty (maker of Beanie Babies) denies that the Obama girls are inspiration for their newly released Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia.

Ty Senior Vice President of Sales Tania Lundeen said, "Sasha and Malia are beautiful names [that] worked very well with the dolls we were making. There's really nothing on either doll that refers to anything else that you may have read in the media today."

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Michelle Obama has issued a statement through her press secretary that decries the release of these toys:
"We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes."

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Obama Girl Dollsplez sez: so this toy company is saying that it is a mere coincidence that President Obama's two precocious daughters have the same names as two newly released Black dolls!

how gullible or stupid do you have to be to believe that line?!?

ms. lundeen goes on to say, "[...the] company avoids naming dolls for 'any particular living individual' because it might interfere with how kids use their imaginations to play with them. When children play, they play with the dolls how they wish, and we don't want to impose any preconceived ideas upon them by implying any further connection."

hmmmm... like they used their imagination while dreaming up names of dolls that are identical to those of the daughters of the newly elected President of the United States?

but these are the ONLY TWO Black dolls in their entire 30 doll line! maybe there's some legal issue with using living peoples' names... probably an issue with paying a royalty or such to the person in question. i think Ty should go ahead and pony up some royalties to the Obama girls, because plezWorld ain't buying their coincidence story, since Sasha and Malia aren't even common names for Black girls... yet!


~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the CNN.com article about the Obama girls dolls.

Read the Washington Post article about Michelle Obama's opposition to the dolls.

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