Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Malia and Sasha dolls 'retired'

Ty, Inc. has officially "retired" its "Marvelous Malia" and "Sweet Sasha" dolls after only a few weeks on the job -- and some words of disapproval from the real Malia and Sasha's mom (and advertising law expert). As the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

A Ty spokeswoman declined to comment, but the company's Web site featured pictures of the dolls marked with the word "retired.''

The dolls, which debuted in January, were criticized by Michelle Obama and others for using the names of the two Obama children, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10.

A company representative first told reporters that the dolls were inspired by the Obama girls after company founder H. Ty Warner saw the daughters and thought they were "cute.'' The company later backed off that storyline, saying that the monikers of the African-American dolls -- Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia -- were chosen because they "are beautiful names.''

Well, one down; many more to go.

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