This paper analyzes the ethical responsibilities of Mattel, a major toy manufacturer, in two interconnected areas: marketing to children and overseeing overseas manufacturing. It discusses the heightened ethical standards that apply when targeting child consumers, drawing on the role psychologists play in helping marketers understand children's psychology. The paper evaluates Mattel's response to the lead paint contamination crisis involving Chinese suppliers, assessing the company's proactive steps and residual gaps in its Global Manufacturing Principles. It concludes with recommendations for strengthening supplier contracts and product testing protocols to prevent future safety failures.
Manufacturers of products aimed at children carry a special ethical obligation with respect to both their products and the marketing of those products. Considerable controversy has erupted over advertising directed at children. Children are impressionable, and while they are not the gatekeepers who control household spending, it is important to ensure that products marketed to them are not detrimental to their wellbeing. As Clay (2000) notes, a key source of controversy arises when psychologists help marketers understand children's minds in order to sell to them more effectively. For most people, a different standard of ethics must be applied when marketing to children, and this is something that marketers at Mattel need to keep in mind.
For Mattel, marketing to children is a business necessity, but the company must recognize that despite divided opinions on the issue, most consumers believe marketing to children should be conducted to the highest ethical standards so that no harm comes to children as a result of those efforts.
The Ethisphere survey indicates that Mattel has likely performed well with respect to managing ethics at its suppliers. The lead paint issue is one area, however, that the company could have foreseen. Since that incident, Mattel has not only remedied the situation with its Chinese suppliers but has built a strong subsequent record. The company moved proactively to institute changes to its suppliers' ethics policies and has become more dedicated to enforcing its mandates (Magno, 2008). Overall, Mattel has a strong track record, and when a mistake was made the company appears to have addressed it in a proactive manner.
Mattel maintains a detailed set of global manufacturing principles covering a range of categories: management systems, wages and working hours, and several other human resource areas (Mattel, 2011). Notably, the lead paint issue is not addressed within these principles, as it pertains directly to manufacturing products that are safe for consumers to use. The use of product inputs that are safe for children is therefore something that should be added to Mattel's global manufacturing principles.
It is surprising that the company's most significant ethical manufacturing failure is not explicitly covered in its own guiding framework. That gap can and should be remedied, and doing so would be the most important recommendation at this point, given that a wide range of potential human resources issues have already been addressed within the existing principles.
Mattel bears substantial responsibility for the production carried out in China on its behalf. The company draws up the specifications to which its Chinese suppliers work and is ultimately responsible for ensuring those products meet its standards before they reach consumers. Mattel therefore needs to ensure not only that its specifications are comprehensive enough to cover all foreseeable issues, but also that robust controls are in place to verify that production consistently meets those specifications.
"Mattel's responsibility for Chinese supplier output"
"Two-level controls to prevent tainted products reaching market"
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