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Disney Offers Baby Einstein Refunds

Parents’ group said videos were harmful to children’s development

By Jon Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 25, 2009
A chastened Disney is offering refunds to consumers who own a copy of the company’s “Baby Einstein” video, bowing to pressure from a parents group that says the video is more likely to turn children into Baby Alfred E. Neumans.

Disney’s move allows anyone who bought a Baby Einstein video between June 5, 2004 and September 4, 2009 to get their money back. Alternatively, consumers can trade their DVD in for a Baby Einstein book or CD, or redeem it for a 25 percent discount on future Baby Einstein purchases. The offer is good through March 4, 2010.

For years the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), a group fighting to “reclaim childhood from corporate marketers,” has said the videos don’t live up to Disney’s promises.

In 2006, the CCFC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleging that Disney’s claims about the videos’ supposed educational benefits amounted to false and deceptive advertising. The complaint pointed out that the American Academy of Pediatricians recommends no TV at all for children under two, regardless of content. The CCFC thus reasoned that the videos may in fact damage, rather than promote, children’s intellectual development.

In response to the CCFC’s complaint, Baby Einstein agreed to overhaul its marketing materials to eliminate any unsubstantiated claims about the videos’ potential benefits. The company also removed parent “testimonials” from its website. In light of these actions, the FTC declined to pursue the matter further, a development that left the CCFC “deeply troubled.”

Susan Linn, a CCFC director and psychologist, said Disney’s latest move is an “acknowledgment that baby videos are not educational.” The group’s website calls the turn of events “another CCFC victory” and reemphasized the lack of “credible evidence that any screen media is educational for children under two.”

Not going quietly

While the CCFC clearly won the day, Disney isn’t going quietly. Susan McLain, the general manager of Baby Einstein, released a statement choc full of sour grapes, framing the refund arrangement as a last-resort tactic in a war against “propaganda groups taking extreme positions.” McLain focused her venom on Linn, asserting that the matter should have been settled after the previous FTC complaint was put to rest, but that the Linn’s “attacks continued and escalated despite the fact that her assertions have no merit.”

The statement closed with the obligatory labeling of the CCFC’s actions as a “smear campaign.”

The CCFC, based in Boston, operates under the notion that most problems facing children – including obesity, substance abuse, and violence – can be traced back to the rampant commercialization of society. The group seeks to fight the “‘me first’ attitude” promoted by corporate marketing.

Disney bought Baby Einstein in November 2001, when the company was already a multi-million dollar franchise. Julie Aigner-Clark, who founded the company in 1997, made headlines two years ago when President Bush pointed her out during his State of the Union Address. The recognition seemed arbitrary at best, given that Clark shared the moment with, among others, Wesley Autrey, who leapt in front of a subway train to save a homeless man languishing on the tracks. It was later revealed that Clark’s husband contributed over $5,000 to Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.

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