There’s a saying that is sometimes attributed to Napoleon, it goes like this, “Never attribute to malice, that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.”
Regardless whether or not Napoleon actually said them, they’re still wise words.
You might have heard about a recent product recall by Hasbro of one of their Troll Doll toys, the “Giggle and Sing Poppy” (ages 4+). The product was pulled from the shelves because parents started complaining about an undocumented feature.
Update: I had included the link but it was “fact checked” as “Partly-False”. Just Google “Troll Doll Recall” and you’ll find a video posted by a concerned parent.
The way the doll works is that you press on the doll’s stomach area, it sings and talks. This feature is clearly marked on the box and it works as described. But, there’s a second button placed between the doll’s legs. When that button is pushed, the doll makes some sounds that are definitely not giggles.
According to Hasbro, the button is situated so that when the doll is placed in a sitting position, the button will be activated and the doll will make a sound. That sounds plausible. But, that doesn’t explain the sounds produced when the button is pushed. Elmo giggles, the Troll Doll does not.
Parents loudly objected to the both the placement of the button and the sounds emitted by the doll and the product was quickly removed from stores.
The claim is that this doll is being used to groom children to be better victims of sexual assault. I don’t believe that was the intent, but I can easily see that it could be an unfortunate result. And many other people should have seen that too.
Toys like this aren’t built by a single person, there are literally hundreds of people at Hasbro involved with the design, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of the toy. Further, Hasbro had to get a license from DreamWorks to use the “Trolls” brand. I’ve worked on many licensed projects so I can tell you that DreamWorks likely had approval rights on every single feature of the product.
It is impossible to believe that nobody at either company realized how this could play out. Certainly, someone with kids of their own must have seen this and raised a red flag. I’d be willing to bet that there was an inside joke at Hasbro about this being a masturbatory-like feature. It too obviously looks like that for it to be missed by every single person on the project.
However, everyone who works on the project doesn’t have an equal say in what goes on. Ultimately, it comes down to one or two people (usually one from Hasbro and one from DreamWorks) to make all the decisions.
Was this malice? I don’t think so. I believe it was simply incompetence by a couple of people at Hasbro and DreamWorks who decided to ignore any warnings or concerns they might have received about the feature.
If you think this is an isolated incident, think again. Last Christmas, parents were surprised to see that the boy LOL Surprise Doll had tiny genitals. As with the Troll Doll, there was no marking on the package to indicate that would be the case.
I believe that parents should decide when and how to teach their children about anatomy. If companies want to sell anatomically-correct dolls, fine. But, they need to clearly mark on the package what will be found inside. I’d like to suggest that they put a link on the outside of the box so that parents can see a video showing all of the product’s features.
The important take-away here is that you need to be very careful what you, or someone else, buys for your kids. The days of giving your child a present that you haven’t personally checked out is, sadly, a thing of the past.
