Mattel Toys and the Hazards of Lead Paint

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Mattel Corporation, known as the largest toy company in the world, is a publicly traded organization with a market capitalization of over $6.5 billion. Employing approximately 36,000 people worldwide in 43 countries, their products are well-known and sold in over 150 nations (Mattel.com). With such winning odds as mentioned, it is hard to imagine that a company readily known to children and adults across the globe would become even better known for the company that produced toys made with lead-based products. This assignment will discuss whether or not Mattel acted in an ethical and socially responsible manner in their decision to recall defective toys, what they perhaps could have done differently to avoid this issue, and the best way society can continue to protect children from potentially harmful toys.

While Mattel is considered the largest toy company in the world, it has been faced with some tempestuous challenges due to safety concerns revolving around toy design and manufacturing in China. In August 2007, Mattel voluntarily recalled 1.5 million toys manufactured in China because they contained too much lead paint (Lawrence & Weber, 2011). These recalls included popular items such as Elmo, Big Bird, and Dora the Explorer by Fisher Price. These toys were products from a contract manufacturer owned by Mattel but produced in China.

Under normal operating conditions, Mattel requires that their manufacturing partners use paint from approved and certified suppliers with specific procedures in place to test and verify the validity of the products; in this particular instance however, procedures were not followed. It would appear that Mattel’s code of conduct called “Global Manufacturing Principles” which requires all busi...

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Mattel History. (N.D.). Retrieved on March 3, 2012 from http://corporate.mattel.com/about-us/history/default.aspx

Edmonson, R.G. (2009, February). Burden of proof. Journal of Commerce, p. 1. Retrieved March 4, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1641146871).

Lawrence, A.T., Weber, J. (2011). Business and society, Thirteenth ed. (VitalSource Bookshelf).

Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781121130074/pages/561-570

Lipton, E. (2007, September 13). Senators Urge More Stringent Rules for Toy Safety. New York Times (Late Edition (east Coast)), p. C.1. Retrieved March 4, 2012, from Banking Information Source. (Document ID: 1334887001).

Toy Industry Association, (2012). Retrieved March 3, 2012 from http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Toy_Safety&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=56&ContentID=1840

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